[Chronic pancreatis and pancreatic carcinoma in the elderly].
Chronic pancreatitis is mostly caused by heavy alcohol consumption and is characterized by the onset of symptoms in the fourth and fifth decade. Beginning in patients older than 65 years of age is rare. Leading symptom is recurrent or persisting abdominal pain which is missed only in approximately 5% of the cases. Chronic pancreatitis is classified as idiopathic if there is no anamnesis of alcohol abuse or some rare specific causes. The Idiopathic Chronic Senile Pancreatitis (ICSP) is a subset of the non-alcoholic pancreatitis and is characterized by advanced age at the time of first manifestation. Although life expectancy especially in chronic alcoholic pancreatitis is reduced, there are many patients who reach older age. The natural history in all forms of chronic pancreatitis shows a decrease in pain and the manifestation of exocrine and endocrine insufficiency as late complications. Especially in the elderly loss of weight may occur with steatorrhea and pancreatic diabetes mellitus as the dominating clinical problem of chronic pancreatitis. If pain persists treatment is symptomatically with analgesics. The possibility of causal surgery or the indication for endoscopic treatment of painful chronic pancreatitis should be proven in every single case. Standard pancreatin treatment consisting of large amounts of enzymes will abolish maldigestion. Pancreatic diabetes requires often insulin, there is a tendency to hypoglycaemia. In contrast to chronic pancreatitis cancer of the pancreas is a typical and frequent disease of the elderly. The prognosis is bad and one year life expectancy is just about 11%. One of the reasons is, that the diagnosis is found lately because early symptoms are missing. Specific symptoms like pain, weight loss or jaundice occur lately. In suspicion of pancreatic cancer a lot of methods of morphological diagnostic are available such as CT, MRCP, ultrasound, ERCP and PET, in addition the specific tumor markers CA 19-9 and CEA. After diagnostic is completed, curative resection is possible in only a low percentage of all cases. Old age is no contraindication for surgery, prognosis and the risk of surgery don't differ to other age groups. In most cases palliative therapy is the only possible option because of an advanced tumor stage. Sufficient pain therapy, endoscopic stenting in case of obstructive jaundice or gastroenterostomy in case of duodenal are useful interventions.
Allgemeines Krankenhaus Wandsbek, II. Medizinische Abteilung, Abteilung für Gastroenterologie und Stoffwechselkrankheiten, Hamburg.
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D000368:Aged; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D010166:Palliative Care; D010179:Pancreas / Q000473:pathology; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D010195:Pancreatitis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D019512:Pancreatitis, Alcoholic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011379:Prognosis; D013557:Switzerland