Introduction:

Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is a progressive inflammation of the pancreas that can lead to irreversible damage and failure. This condition poses great challenges to physicians since its diagnosis can take months or even years. Patient follow-up is often problematic and knowledge about its clinical presentation and epidemiology in Colombia is scarce. This study aims to describe patients with CP treated at a gastroenterology reference center in Cali, Colombia.

Methodology:

Cross-sectional study in adult patients with CP confirmed based on clinical and radiological criteria between 2011 and 2017.

Results:

36 patients with CP were included. The majority were men (72.2 %), and the mean age was 56 (+15.1) years. Chronic abdominal pain was the most common clinical presentation (83.3%). About a quarter of patients had diabetes mellitus (22.2 %). Etiology was idiopathic in 58.3 %, alcoholic in 11.0 %, and biliary in 11.0 %. Computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and MRI cholangiopancreatography were the most commonly used diagnostic methods (60.5 %), showing mostly atrophy (53.1 %), duct dilation (49.0 %), and pancreatic calcifications (34.7 %).

Conclusion:

Nonspecific symptoms of CP in early stages and its long clinical course favor the underdiagnosis of this condition. The results presented may contribute to the future creation of local clinical scales that guide early radiological and genetic studies to achieve a timely diagnosis and improve the quality of life of these patients.

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