Chronic Pancreatitis m e M

ns ts 245,457 (range 20,850 to 607,466). Operative data revealed a mean estimated blood loss of 635 ml, an average operative time of 9 hours, and a mean length of hospital stay of 15 days. Sixty-eight percent of the patients had either a minor or major complication. Major complications included acute respiratory distress syndrome (n 2), intra-abdominal abscess (n 1), and pulmonary embolism (n 1). There were no deaths in our series. All patients demonstrated C-peptide and insulin production indicating graft function. Forty-one percent are insulin independent, and 27 % required minimal amount of insulin or a sliding scale. All patients had preoperative pain and had been taking opioid analgesics; 82 % no longer required analgesics postoperatively. Pancreatectomy with autologous islet cell transplantation can alleviate pain for patients with chronic pancreatitis and preserve endocrine function. (J GASTROINTEST SURG 2003;7:978–989) 2003 The Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract KEY WORDS: Pancreatectomy, autologous islet transplantation, quality of life, chronic pancreatitis Chronic pancreatitis is a disease that progressively destroys pancreatic exocrine tissue, causes pain syn-dromes that frequently require hospitalization, and can severely compromise quality of life.Medical man-agement consisting of analgesics and pancreatic enzyme replacement rarely leads to acceptable relief of pain and can often act as a precursor to the abuse of narcotics.1 Patients who suffer from chronic pan-creatitis are at increased risk for pancreatic adenocar-cinoma relative to the general population.2,3 At least 50 % of patients who suffer from chronic pancreatitiswill ultimately require someformof surgi-cal intervention4–6 secondary to persistent refractor