Endoscopic versus Surgical Drainage of the Pancreatic Duct in Chronic Pancreatitis

For patients with chronic pancreatitis and a dilated pancreatic duct, ductal decompression is recommended. We conducted a randomized trial to compare endoscopic and surgical drainage of the pancreatic duct.All symptomatic patients with chronic pancreatitis and a distal obstruction of the pancreatic duct but without an inflammatory mass were eligible for the study. We randomly assigned patients to undergo endoscopic transampullary drainage of the...