-Case Reports-

The Frey Procedure with the Use of 2 Types of Ultrasonically Activated Scalpels for Chronic Pancreatitis: Report of a Case

Satoshi Mizutani¹, Takayuki Aimoto², Hideyuki Suzuki¹, Seiji Yamagishi¹, Masanori Watanabe¹ and Eiji Uchida²

¹Institute of Gastroenterology, Nippon Medical School Musashi Kosugi Hospital
²Department of Surgery, Nippon Medical School

A surgical procedure is the only way to relieve intractable pain in patients with chronic pancreatitis and an inflammatory mass in the pancreas head. Although the Frey procedure is safer and more effective for pain relief than is standard pancreaticodudenectomy, it is often associated with such complications as pancreatic fistula and postoperative hemorrhage. A 64-year-old man was admitted to our hospital because of increasingly frequent episodes of epigastralgia. This patient had continued to abuse alcohol until recently and was regularly using painkillers to relieve severe pain due to chronic pancreatitis. The patient underwent the Frey procedure with the use of 2 types of ultrasonically activated scalpel. There were no surgery-related complications. The patient was discharged 18 days after the operation. Neither recurrence of pain nor locoregional complications have been observed for 2 years after the procedure. Herein we report the use of the Frey procedure to treat an enlarged mass of the pancreatic head and discuss the efficacy of the ultrasonically activated scalpel for excavation of the pancreatic head and long dichotomy of the pancreatic duct.

J Nippon Med Sch 2013; 80: 312-317

Keywords
chronic pancreatitis, Frey procedure, ultrasonically activated scalpel

Correspondence to
Satoshi Mizutani, Institute of Gastroenterology, Nippon Medical School Musashi Kosugi Hospital, 1-396 Kosugi-cho, Nakahara-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa 211-8533, Japan
mizutani@nms.ac.jp

Received, April 9, 2013
Accepted, April 23, 2013