Endosonography-guided pancreatic duct drainage for chronic pancreatitis.

Although endoscopic transpapillary treatment of chronic pancreatitis (CP) is gaining acceptance, it is not always possible, especially in patients with inflammatory stenosis of the duodenum due to CP or with a history of a Whipple's procedure. Linear array echoendoscopes (ES) provide high-quality images of the pancreas along with adjacent organs and allow therapeutic applications. echoendoscope-related procedures, such as ES-guided pancreatic duct drainage (ESPD) are feasible and useful in selected patients with CP suffering from PD stricture in whom conventional endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) is impossible.