[Chronic pancreatitis: notes on diagnosis and surgical therapy]

The authors analyse their experience of 30 cases of which 25 underwent surgery. In addition to the onset of complications, indications for surgery were based on the presence of severe painful symptoms which did not respond to medical treatment. Over the past few years the latter have represented one of the main indications with a success rate of between 80-90% of cases. The type of surgery must be personalized to the characteristics of each individual patient on the basis of morphological alterations of the gland, which are easily defined during a preoperative study using CPRE, ultrasonography and CT. Of these, CPRE has been found to be the most reliable in diagnostic terms, since it can detect structural alterations at a relatively early phase and is of considerable value in differential diagnosis, which is at times extremely difficult, with pancreatic carcinoma.