Chronic pancreatitis. Anatomo-clinical and surgical treatment characteristics.

Chronic pancreatitis of biliary origin, often localized in the cephalic region of the gland and etiopathogenetically related to biliary lithiasis whose anatomoclinical evolution is thus complicated, has a good prognosis. Chronic pancreatitis proper, persistent, recurrent calcifying with pancreatic lithiasis and with pseudocysts, more rare in Romania, raises difficulties of diagnosis and of surgical treatment, the prognosis being doubtful. In a group of 321 patients (33.6% males and 66.4% females) with chronic pancreatitis of biliary origin (252 cases) and chronic pancreatitis proper unrelated to biliary diseases (69 cases), indirect surgery--to remove the biliary factor--(291 patients) and direct surgery on the gland for pancreatic decompression or even gland exeresis (30 patients) were performed. The results obtained in the 321 patients after indirect and direct surgery were very good in 52% of the cases, good in 34%, moderate in 8%, failure in 2.5%; the mortality was of 2.9%.