Intervention in necrotizing pancreatitis: an evidence-based review of surgical and percutaneous alternatives.

Interventional therapy in necrotizing pancreatitis is evolving. Efforts to modify or prevent pancreatic necrosis by intra-arterial infusion of antibiotics and antiproteases have been described. Moreover, traditional approaches to the surgical management of infected pancreatic necrosis are being challenged by a host of endoscopic and percutaneous techniques. While these approaches are potentially valuable additions to interventional therapy in necrotizing pancreatitis, few evidence-based studies are available to support their supplanting more traditional approaches at this time. Cooperative evidence-based multiinstitutional studies will be required to address the validity of these proposals.