Pancreatic enzymes for chronic pancreatitis

Chronic pancreatitis is a condition afflicting nearly 0.04% to 5% of the population worldwide. The disease presents as recurrent episodes of abdominal pain, fatty stools and weight loss, or may be asymptomatic. Patients may develop complications over a variable period of time. Medical treatment often involves prescription of pancreatic enzyme preparations for these patients. This practice is based on studies which have shown the benefit of pancreatic enzymes on various outcomes such as abdominal pain, weight loss, analgesic use, fatty stools and quality of life. However, a collective conclusion about the role of pancreatic enzymes in chronic pancreatitis patients needs to be established from these studies. This systematic review aimed to collect all published and unpublished data on this subject in order to evaluate whether pancreatic enzymes have any benefit on various parameters in chronic pancreatitis, to compare different types of enzyme preparations and to evaluate whether different dosage schedules have any influence on the various outcomes. We included 10 studies in the review. These studies had enrolled small numbers of patients. Though individual studies showed benefit of varying degrees on the parameters mentioned above, we could not pool the results of these studies. With the evidence available so far, no definitive conclusion can be drawn for the benefit of pancreatic enzymes in patients with chronic pancreatitis.