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Long‐term pain relief with optimized medical treatment including antioxidants and step‐up interventional therapy in patients with chronic pancreatitis
Author(s) -
Midha Shallu,
Hasan Ajmal,
Dhingra Rajan,
Garg Pramod Kumar
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of gastroenterology and hepatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.214
H-Index - 130
eISSN - 1440-1746
pISSN - 0815-9319
DOI - 10.1111/jgh.13410
Subject(s) - medicine , pancreatitis , abdominal pain , etiology , surgery , gastroenterology
Background and aim Abdominal pain is difficult to treat in patients with chronic pancreatitis (CP). Medical therapy including antioxidants has been shown to relieve pain of CP in the short‐term. Our aim was to study the long‐term results of optimized medical and interventional therapy for pain relief in patients with CP with a step‐up approach. Methods All consecutive patients with CP were included prospectively in the study. They were treated medically with a well‐balanced diet, pancreatic enzymes, and antioxidants (9000 IU beta‐carotene, 0.54 g vitamin C, 270 IU vitamin E, 600 µg organic selenium, and 2 g methionine). Endoscopic therapy and/or surgery were offered if medical therapy failed. Pain relief was the primary outcome measure. Results A total of 313 patients (mean age 26.16 ± 12.17; 244 males) with CP were included; 288 (92%) patients had abdominal pain. The etiology of CP was idiopathic in 224 (71.6%) and alcohol in 82 (26.2%). At 1‐year follow‐up, significant pain relief was achieved in 84.7% of patients: 52.1% with medical therapy, 16.7% with endoscopic therapy, 7.6% with surgery, and 8.3% spontaneously. The mean pain score decreased from 6.36 ± 1.92 to 1.62 ± 2.10 ( P < 0.001). Of the 288 patients, 261, 218, 112, and 51 patients were followed up for 3, 5, 10, and 15 years, respectively; 54.0%, 57.3%, 60.7%, and 68.8% of them became pain free at those follow‐up periods. Conclusion Significant pain relief is achieved in the majority of patients with optimized medical and interventional treatment.