Effect of pancreatic duct stent diameter on hospitalization in chronic pancreatitis: does size matter?

Objective: Endoscopic therapy with pancreatic duct (PD) stenting in painful chronic pancreatitis is effective at reducing pain. Few studies have compared response to different PD stent diameters. In this study, we retrospectively analyzed the effect of PD stent diameter on hospitalization for abdominal pain in chronic pancreatitis.

Methods: An existing database was queried to identify individuals who received PD stenting for chronic pancreatitis. Each patient was grouped according to stent diameter: (1) 8.5F stents or smaller and (2) 10F stents. The main outcome was number of hospitalizations adjusting for varying follow-up time and controlling for age, sex, and etiology of pancreatitis using a negative binomial model.

Results: One hundred sixty-three patients underwent PD stent placement for chronic pancreatitis from October 1995 to September 2007. One hundred twenty-nine patients (79%) received predominantly PD stents 8.5F or smaller in diameter, and 34 patients (21%) received predominantly PD stents 10F in diameter. There was no statistically significant difference in population characteristics between the 2 groups. The 10F stent group had a statistically significant (P = 0.003) lower rate of hospitalization.

Conclusions: Patients who received larger diameter PD stents had fewer hospitalizations for abdominal pain. Outcome-based prospective studies are needed.