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Analysis of the Course of Chronic Pancreatitis: Pancreatic Burnout Rates Are Only Increased in a Subgroup of Patients With Alcoholic Chronic Pancreatitis

Objectives The pancreatic burnout hypothesis postulated an increasing absence of pain with simultaneous functional insufficiency in advanced stages of chronic pancreatitis (CP). However, the underlying data remain scarce and contradictory. We aimed to analyze, first, the frequency of a pancreatic burnout in CP, and, second, its association with etiological risk factors. Methods We performed a multicenter, retrospective, cross-sectional study with 741 patients with CP categorized according to the M-ANNHEIM classification. Pancreatic burnout was defined by different combinations of exocrine or endocrine insufficiency with partial or complete absence of abdominal pain. Results The frequency of a pancreatic burnout increased with prolonged disease duration and was observed in a maximum of 38% of patients after 20 years. Development of a pancreatic burnout was significantly associated with alcohol consumption (P < 0.05, Mann-Whitney U test), but not with other etiological risk factors. After a disease duration of more than 10 years, the likelihood of a burnout was 8 times higher in alcoholic CP than in nonalcoholic CP (95% confidence interval, 1.5–42.0; P = 0.015, logistic regression analysis). Conclusions A pancreatic burnout does not regularly occur in CP. Increased burnout rates are only observed in patients with alcoholic CP.