An update on improving long-term outcomes for patients with chronic pancreatitis post-surgery

Expert Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2024 Feb 20. doi: 10.1080/17474124.2024.2321947. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTINTRODUCTION: Chronic pancreatitis is a common disease that severely impairs patients' quality of life, mainly due to abdominal pain. Medical therapy alone is rarely effective to treat pain and interventional procedures are often needed. Endoscopic therapy (stricture dilatation and ductal stone removal) is usually effective in reducing pain in the short term but its effect frequently decreases with time and multiple procedures are often required.AREAS COVERED: Surgical treatment of chronic pancreatitis is based on resection of inflammatory head mass or decompression of the ductal system, alone or in combination, which can be performed using different techniques. In this paper we reviewed the current evidence on the long-term outcomes of this type of surgery in terms of pain relief, quality of life, exocrine end endocrine function and long-term mortality.EXPERT OPINION: Quality of current evidence on this field is on average poor; a consensus to define clinically significant outcomes is needed in order to correctly design prospective studies that will enable gastroenterologists to understand which patients, and when, will benefit most from surgery and should therefore be referred to surgeons.PMID:38375780 | DOI:10.1080/17474124.2024.2321947
Source: Expert Review of Gastroenterology and Hepatology - Category: Gastroenterology Authors: Source Type: research