Characteristic symptoms of chronic pancreatitis are difficult to manage conservatively. They include severe pain and endocrine and exocrine insufficiency. Surgical treatment with simple and extended draining procedures addresses pain relief and the management of chronic pancreatitis-associated complications of adjacent organs. Following the assumption that pancreatic duct changes with intraductal hypertension are the reason for pain, simple drainage procedures have reduced pain in up to 80% of patients, with low morbidity and mortality. In case of complications involving adjacent organs with inflammatory pancreatic head tumor and stenosis of the distal bile duct, extended drainage procedures with limited pancreatic head resection according to Frey and V-shaped excision of the ventral aspect of the pancreas have been performed successfully.
