Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Dec 21, 2016; 22(47): 10415-10423
Published online Dec 21, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i47.10415
Role of original and modified Frey's procedures in chronic pancreatitis
Chun-Lu Tan, Hao Zhang, Min Yang, Shao-Jun Li, Xu-Bao Liu, Ke-Zhou Li
Chun-Lu Tan, Hao Zhang, Min Yang, Shao-Jun Li, Xu-Bao Liu, Ke-Zhou Li, Department of Pancreatic Surgery, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China
Author contributions: Tan CL, Zhang H and Yang M contributed equally to this work; Tan CL, Zhang H and Li KZ designed the study; Tan CL, Yang M and Li SJ acquired the data; Tan CL, Zhang H and Yang M analyzed and interpreted the data; Tan CL, Zhang H, Yang M and Liu XB drafted the manuscript; Tan CL, Liu XB and Li KZ revised the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Institutional review board.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest exist that are relevant to this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Ke-Zhou Li, PhD, Department of Pancreatic Surgery, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, 37 Guoxuexiang, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China. huaxipancreas@163.com
Telephone: +86-28-85422474 Fax: +86-28-85422474
Received: June 29, 2016
Peer-review started: June 29, 2016
First decision: August 29, 2016
Revised: September 30, 2016
Accepted: October 31, 2016
Article in press: October 31, 2016
Published online: December 21, 2016
Processing time: 172 Days and 22.5 Hours
Abstract
AIM

To retrospectively review patients with chronic pancreatitis (CP) treated with Frey’s procedures between January 2009 and January 2014.

METHODS

A retrospective review was performed of patients with CP treated with Frey’s procedures between January 2009 and January 2014 in the Department of Pancreatic Surgery. A cross-sectional study of postoperative pain relief, quality of life (QoL), and alcohol and nicotine abuse was performed by clinical interview, letters and telephone interview in January 2016. QoL of patients was evaluated with the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30) version 3.0. The patients were requested to fill in the questionnaires by themselves via correspondence or clinical interview.

RESULTS

A total of 80 patients were enrolled for analysis, including 44 who underwent the original Frey’s procedure and 36 who underwent a modified Frey’s procedure. The mean age was 46 years in the original group and 48 years in the modified group. Thirty-five male patients (80%) were in the original group and 33 (92%) in the modified group. There were no differences in the operating time, blood loss, and postoperative morbidity and mortality between the two groups. The mean follow-up was 50.3 mo in the original group and 48.7 mo in the modified group. There were no differences in endocrine and exocrine function preservation between the two groups. The original Frey’s procedure resulted in significantly better pain relief, as shown by 5-year follow-up (P = 0.032), better emotional status (P = 0.047) and fewer fatigue symptoms (P = 0.028). When stratifying these patients by the M-ANNHEIM severity index, no impact was found on pain relief after the two types of surgery.

CONCLUSION

The original Frey’s procedure is as safe as the modified procedure, but the former yields better pain relief. The severity of CP does not affect postoperative pain relief.

Keywords: Chronic pancreatitis; Frey’s procedure; M-ANNHEIM severity index; Pain relief; Quality of life

Core tip: Surgical treatment is often required for chronic pancreatitis (CP) when conservative therapy cannot control the intractable pain. The Frey’s procedure is frequently applied for CP because of its safety and efficacy. However, there is no uniform standard for the amount of cored pancreatic head tissue. This study compared the original and modified Frey’s procedures with different depths of cored tissue and performance in a single clinical department. The original Frey’s procedure was advantageous in terms of pain relief in a 5-year follow-up.