Endoscopic Treatment in Chronic Pancreatitis

Chronic pancreatitis can give rise to relapsing episodic or persistent upper abdominal pain (Frulloni et al., 2010). Apart from the derangement of endocrine and exocrine functions, it can cause local complications such as pancreatic ductal stenosis, formation of intraductal stones and development of pseudocysts (Strobel et al., 2009). Management of these complications can be challenging in some patients. Various surgical drainage and resection procedures had been described with successful results (Strobel et al., 2009) but they were technically demanding and carried significant morbidities (Schnelldorfer et al., 2007). With the advancement in endoscopic treatments and novel techniques, some of the conventional open procedures have been replaced by endoscopic or minimally invasive techniques. In this chapter, we reviewed various endoscopic procedures available in treating patients with chronic pancreatitis, namely endoscopic sphincterotomy, stricture dilatation, stenting, stone extraction, endoscopic ultrasound-guided pseudocyst drainage and celiac plexus block. The indications, techniques and efficacy of endoscopic treatments were discussed in this chapter.