Introduction
Chronic pancreatitis is an on-going inflammatory process of the pancreas that causes morphological changes,leading to pain or functional loss(Etemad and Whitcomb 2001).Abdominal pain is the most common presentation,affecting 85-90%of patients,and leads to a diminished quality of life(Braganza et al.2011;Pezizilli and Fantini 2005).The various structural complications of chronic pancreatitis include pancreatic ductal stones,ductal strictures,distal biliary strictures and pseudocysts.While endoscopic therapy(endotherapy)is an established modality in treating these complications,other causes of pain including pancreatic cancer,duodenal stenosis andgastroparesis should be excluded.(https://www.daowen.com)
In this chapter,we discuss the current status of endotherapy for patients with pancreatic ductal stones,pancreatic ductal strictures,benign biliary strictures and pseudocysts.In addition,we also discuss the role of endosonography-guided celiac plexus block when abdominal pain due to chronic pancreatitis is intractable.