Postoperative lavage treatment of chronic pancreatic abscess

: The authors present their experiences in treatment of chronic pancreatic abscess and infected pancreatic necrosis. In this paper they refer to patients only whose acute necrotizing pancreatitis occurred 4-6 weeks earlier and had intra- and peripancreatic abscesses. They describe their successful lavage method for treatment of pancreatic abscesses. Between 1985 and 1998 they treated 16 patients with only one mortality. The majority of their patients were relatively old and most of them suffered from several severe unrelated diseases. In their opinion, careful dissection and long period of lavage and drainage are a successful method for treating this high-risk surgical group.