Management of pancreatic pseudocysts—A retrospective analysis

BACKGROUND: Pancreatic pseudocysts arise mostly in patients with alcohol induced chronic pancreatitis causing various symptoms and complications. However, data on the optimal management are rare. To address this problem, we analysed patients with pancreatic pseudocysts treated at our clinic retrospectively. METHODS: We searched our clinical database for the diagnosis pancreatitis from 2004 till 2014, selected patients with pseudocysts larger than 10 mm and entered all relevant information in a database for statistical analysis. RESULTS: In total, 129 patients with pancreatic pseudocysts were treated at our institution during the study period. Most patients suffered from alcohol induced chronic pancreatitis (43.4%; 56/129). Pseudocysts were more frequent in female than in male (2:1) and were mainly located in the pancreatic head (47.3%; 61/129). Local complications like obstructive jaundice were associated with the diameter of the cysts (AUC 0.697 in ROC-curve analysis). However, even cysts up to a diameter of 160 mm can regress spontaneously. Besides a lower re-intervention rate in surgically treated patients, endoscopic, percutaneous and surgical drainage are equally effective. Most treatment related complications occur in large pseudocysts located in the pancreatic head. CONCLUSION: Conservative management of large pseudocysts is successful in many patients. Therefore, indication for treatment should be made carefully considering the presence and risk of local complications. Endoscopic and surgical drainage are equally effective.