[Chronic pancreatitis]

Abstract

The present article summarizes some of the most important results with potential clinical impact on the diagnosis and management of chronic pancreatitis presented at the last meeting of Digestive Disease Week. Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) is currently the method of choice for the diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis in clinical practice. However, some new studies suggest that the Rosemont classification is not useful for diagnosis of this disease in the early stages, whereas others show that, in patients with abdominal pain, chronic pancreatitis cannot be excluded even when there are less than three EUS criteria of the disease. In contrast, new studies support the usefulness of endoscopic ultrasound for the diagnosis of autoimmune pancreatitis in the presence of pancreatic ductitis. From the therapeutic point of view, a notable contribution at the congress was a new randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial showing the efficacy of pregabalin for the treatment of pain in chronic pancreatitis.