[Long-term results after operative treatment of acute haemorrhagic necrotising pancreatitis (author's transl)].

A follow-up investigation of 20 patients, surgically treated for acute haemorrhagic necrotising pancreatitis, was performed in an average of 2 3/4 years after the operation. Twelve patients showed manifest diabetes mellitus, four further cases had a suspicious oral glucose tolerance test. Only one patient was insulin dependent. A secretin-pancreozymin test performed in 15 patients showed a dissociated or global pancreatic insufficiency in 13 cases. The extent of the endocrine and exocrine functional disturbance did not correlate with the extent of surgery. Postoperative functional defects were readily improved therapeutically in most cases. Only in patients who continued to consume alcohol were there digestive disturbances. The results indicate that the functional state of the remaining pancreas does not only depend on the extent of surgery but also on the extent of already existing or persisting toxic inflammatory damage and on the regenerative capacity of the remaining parenchyma.