Endoscopic therapy of chronic pancreatitis

Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is a rare disease in western countries (incidence 2-10/100.000/year). It ultimately leads to irreversible damage of the pancreas with exocri- ne and endocrine insufficiency. Pain is the major clinical symptom and is present early in the course of the disea- se in most of the cases (1-3). With the exception of the rare hereditary CP which is associated with a mutation in the cationic trypsinogen gene on chromosome 7 (4,5), the etiology of CP has not already been demonstrated. Chronic alcoholism is a pre- cipitating factor and it dramatically increases the proba- bility of CP development but the disease can develop in non-alcoholic subjects and is then qualified of "idio- pathic" CP.