Major haemorrhage associated with a pseudocyst in chronic pancreatitis: a gastro-surgical challenge

During the fifteen years between 1979 and 1994, ten patients with alcohol-associated chronic pancreatitis were treated for acute haemorrhage from pancreatic pseudocyst. Five of the cases took place in the last two years of the period. All patients were men with a median age of 39.5 years and with a mean of six years of alcohol misuse. Seven patients presented with massive gastrointestinal bleeding, two with intraperitoneal and one with retroperitoneal bleeding. In six patients the pseudocyst had perforated into the stomach or duodenum. Pancreatic resection resulted in permanent haemostasis in those patients it was attempted to perform, whereas ligation of the bleeding site failed in three out of four patients. One angiographic embolisation resulted in a good primary result but after 77 days the patient was operated on for recurrent bleeding. There was no hospital mortality, but altogether five patients were reoperated on for recurrent haemorrhage and six patients had other postoperative complications. Haemorrhage from pancreatic pseudocyst must be suspected in patients with anamnestic alcohol misuse and major gastrointestinal bleeding. Aggressive diagnostic evaluation, experience in pancreatic surgery, and operative strategies consisting of either resection or extracystic ligation are mandatory in the treatment of this acute condition.