Background: Pancreatic pseudocysts are a common complication of acute and chronic pancreatitis. They are diagnosed with imaging studies and can be treated successfully with a variety of methods: endoscopic transpapillary or transmural drainage, percutaneous catheter drainage, laparoscopic surgery, or open pseudocystoenterostomy.
Methods: Relevant publications that appeared from 1975 to 2008 were retrieved from the MEDLINE, PubMed and EMBASE databases for this review.
Results: Endoscopic pseudocyst drainage has a high success rate (79.2%) and a low complication rate (12.9%). Percutaneous drainage is mainly used for the emergency treatment of infected pancreatic pseudocysts. Open internal drainage and pseudocyst resection are surgical techniques with high success rates (>92%), but also higher morbidity (16%) and mortality (2.5%) than endoscopic treatment (mortality 0.7%). Laparoscopic pseudocystoenterostomy, a recently introduced procedure, is probably similar to the endoscopic techniques with regard to morbidity and mortality.
Conclusions: An interdisciplinary approach is best suited for the safe and effective stage-specific treatment of pancreatic pseudocysts. The different interventional techniques that are currently available have yet to be compared directly in randomized trials.
Keywords: drainage; endoscopy; minimally invasive therapy; pancreatitis; spontaneous remission.