Incidence of alcoholic chronic pancreatitis in Copenhagen

A retrospective study of 126 patients with chronic pancreatitis diagnosed from 1970 to 1979 is presented. The aim was to evaluate whether the incidence of chronic pancreatitis had increased and to present briefly the clinical aspects of chronic pancreatitis in Copenhagen. The annual incidence of chronic pancreatitis rose from 6.9 to 10.0 per 100,000 during the 10 years of the study. This increase was only due to an augmentation in the number of patients with alcoholic chronic pancreatitis. Clinical aspects of chronic pancreatitis were similar to those found in other European countries. The present study suggests that alcoholic chronic pancreatitis will be a commoner disease in Denmark in the future.