Pancreatic resection for chronic pancreatitis

Patients with chronic pancreatitis needing operative management include those with severe pain, those with complications of pancreatitis, or those in whom it is not possible to distinguish cancer of the pancreas from chronic pancreatitis. The use of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, CT, and angiography to define the structural abnormalities has increased the surgeon's ability to select an operation matched to the patient's needs. A longitudinal pancreaticojejunostomy should be performed in patients whose ducts are dilated. When the head of the pancreas is enlarged and thickened, pancreaticoduodenectomy has been the traditional operation of choice. However, local resection with pyloric and duodenal preservation should now be considered an alternative that has a lower mortality rate and less likelihood of creating diabetes or exocrine insufficiency. Patients whose ducts are of insufficient caliber to permit longitudinal pancreaticojejunostomy are candidates for resection of the proximal or distal pancreas, depending on the site of disease or, alternatively, for the Beger or Warren procedure. Pain relief is achieved with surgery in about 80 per cent of patients with chronic pancreatitis. Many of the late deaths following operation for chronic pancreatitis are attributable, not to the operation, but to the effects of alcoholism. There is a need for surgeons to improve their observations and assessment of operative results.