[Therapy of chronic pancreatitis].

Treatment of chronic pancreatitis is dependend on the stage of the disease and its complications. Pain therapy should be based on the knowledge of various causes of pain. In therapy of complications such as bile duct or pancreatic duct strictures interventional endoscopy is usually the first choice followed by surgery. Exocrine insufficiency is treated by porcine pancreatic extracts, endocrine insufficiency by insulin. One has to apply various imaging procedures such as sonography, MRCP, ERCP, endosonography, CT for exact diagnosis of complications and planning various therapeutic strategies. Pseudocysts may be drained via the transgastric, transduodenal, transpapillary or transcutaneous route. Distal prepapillary stenosis of the main pancreatic duct and bile duct stenoses can be drained by stents. Pancreatic duct stones can be desintegrated by shock waves and removed by endoscopy. Early diagnosis of pancreatic carcinoma as a potential complication of long standing inflammation of the pancreas remains an unsolved problem.