Chronic pancreatitis in Eastern India: Experience from a tertiary care center

There is a wide variation in the clinical presentation of chronic pancreatitis (CP) in the different parts of India. Data regarding the clinical profile of CP from eastern India are scarce. We describe the clinical and demographic profiles of patients with CP in eastern India. Consecutive patients were evaluated for the clinical presentation, etiology and complication of CP. One hundred and thirty-nine patients with CP (mean age 39.57±14.88 years; M/F 3.48:1) were included. Idiopathic CP (50.35%) was the most common etiology followed by alcohol (33.81%); 68.34% had calcific CP and 31.65% had noncalcific CP. The median duration of symptoms was 24 (1-240) months. Pain was the most common symptom, being present in 93.52% of the patients. Diabetes, steatorrhea and pseudocyst were present in 45.32%, 14.38% and 7.19% of the cases, respectively. Moderate to severe anemia was revealed in 16.53% of the patients. Benign biliary stricture was diagnosed in 19.42% of the cases (symptomatic in 6.47%). The common radiological findings were the following: pancreatic calculi (68.34%), dilated pancreatic duct (PD) (58.99%), parenchymal atrophy (25.89%) and PD stricture (23.74%). In our center, idiopathic CP followed by alcoholic CP was the most frequent form of CP. Tropical CP was distinctly uncommon.