Clinical course and treatment of chronic pancreatitis

Chronic pancreatitis is still for a large part shrouded in mists. Although chronic pancreatitis was first described around 1800 and since then over 20.000 research articles are published on this topic, there are still many knowledge gaps and misunderstandings regarding diagnostics, course of disease and treatment of chronic pancreatitis. Comprehensive understanding of chronic pancreatitis is needed to understand and successfully treat a patient with chronic pancreatitis. As such, this thesis aims to fulfill several knowledge gaps in chronic pancreatitis. The first part of the thesis explores the diagnostics and natural course of chronic pancreatitis, whereas the second part focusses on the surgical treatment of chronic pancreatitis.