Pancreatic diseases

Excerpt

Pancreatic diseases are regarded rare. However, the incidence of acute pancreatitis varies substantially across Europe, with 5–50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants per year. In Austria, it is estimated at 20 cases. Chronic pancreatitis exhibits a prevalence of 40–70 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. Pancreatic cancer affects one out of 100 people in Austria. The mortality of acute pancreatitis depends on the type of disease: 80 % are mild and the mortality is close to zero; one out of five is of the hemorrhagic-necrotizing type and 20–30 % of these patients die from it. The mortality of pancreatic cancer strongly depends on the perspective: surgeons who rigorously select patients for surgery and mix ductal adenocarcinoma with cystadenocarcinoma, papillary cancer, and distal bile duct cancer in their statistics present 5-year survival rates of 20 % in those resectable and up to 40 % in patients of R0 and N0 categories. Epidemiologic studies, registers, and official statistics estimate that 5-year mortality is still close to 100 %. This discrepancy can only be partly explained. …