Puestow Procedure for the Management of Pediatric Chronic Pancreatitis

Recurrent pancreatitis significantly impacts childhood development and quality of life. Our goal was to evaluate the efficacy of the Puestow procedure.

After obtaining the Institutional Review Board approval, we reviewed the charts of all patients who underwent lateral pancreaticojejunostomy from January 1999 to January 2014. Statistical analysis was performed using paired Student's t-test and Fisher's exact test as appropriate.

During the 15-year study period, 13 patients underwent a lateral pancreaticojejunostomy for chronic pancreatitis. The most common causes of pancreatitis were hereditary (n = 5) or obstructive (n = 5); pancreas divisum (n = 2), one iatrogenic stricture, one idiopathic stricture, and one unresectable pancreatic head mass); two patients had idiopathic disease, and one case was drug-induced. Six patients had failed management with endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography and pancreatic duct stenting. Preoperatively, the median body mass index (BMI) percentile-for-age was 61.0% (range 11.0-99.0%). Median age at operation was 12.8 years (range 7.7-16.7). There were no deaths, four patients developed postoperative ileus, and one patient developed an intra-abdominal abscess, which resolved with antibiotics. Median postoperative length of stay was 7 days (range 5-15).Two patients were lost to follow-up; median follow-up for the remaining 12 patients was 35.5 months (range 4.9-131.2). Four patients were readmitted within 90 days: three due to abdominal pain which were not recurrences of pancreatitis, and one due to complications of chemotherapy. Postoperatively, there was no change in the average BMI percentile-for-age (p = 0.64). Seven patients reported resolution or significant improvement in their abdominal pain symptoms at the time of last follow-up. Patients with obstructive causes of pancreatitis were not more likely to experience relief than those with nonobstructive causes (42.9 vs. 80.0%, p = 0.29).

In our experience, lateral pancreaticojejunostomy results in durable improvement or resolution of abdominal pain symptoms in nearly 60% of patients with chronic pancreatitis regardless of etiology.