Long-term pain relief with optimized medical treatment including antioxidants and step-up interventional therapy in patients with chronic pancreatitis

Background and aimAbdominal 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. MethodsAll consecutive patients with CP were included prospectively in the study. They were treated medically with a well-balanced diet, pancreatic enzymes, and antioxidants (9000IU beta-carotene, 0.54g vitamin C, 270IU vitamin E, 600 mu g organic selenium, and 2g methionine). Endoscopic therapy and/or surgery were offered if medical therapy failed. Pain relief was the primary outcome measure. ResultsA total of 313 patients (mean age 26.1612.17; 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 15years, respectively; 54.0%, 57.3%, 60.7%, and 68.8% of them became pain free at those follow-up periods. ConclusionSignificant pain relief is achieved in the majority of patients with optimized medical and interventional treatment.