Original title: Pancreatitis-Related Encapsulated Fluid Collections Associated With a Pancreatic Duct Stent Retained for 13 Years in Chronic Alcoholic Pancreatitis: A Case Report
Koichi Soga, Ou Takagi, Yutarou Koike, Kohei Inaba +6 · September 2026
Doctors use a pancreatic stent—a small plastic tube—to open blocked ducts in an inflamed pancreas. Leaving these tubes in place for too long can cause serious trouble. In this report, doctors treated a 65-year-old man with chronic alcoholic pancreatitis. He had a pancreatic duct stent that was forgotten and left inside his body for approximately 13 years. The man developed a fever and lost his appetite. Scans showed hardened calcium deposits across his pancreas along with trapped pockets of fluid around the organ and deep in his pelvis. The pelvic fluid looked like leaked digestive juice rather than dead tissue. Doctors removed the old stent, inserted a fresh plastic one, and gave conservative medical care. The fluid pockets improved.
Imagine you have a drainpipe in your house that gets clogged. You insert a mesh tube to keep it open, but then you forget about it for over a decade. Over time, debris builds up around the mesh, causing backups and leaks in your basement and even in the yard. In this paper, the pancreatic duct stent is like that mesh tube, and the fluid collections are the backups and leaks that formed because the stent was left in too long without maintenance.
Patients with chronic pancreatitis often receive pancreatic duct stents to relieve blockages. This case shows that if the stent is left in too long—here, 13 years—it can lead to serious fluid collections around the pancreas and pelvis. Doctors must ensure patients are monitored regularly after stent placement to prevent such late complications.
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Pancreatitis-Related Encapsulated Fluid Collections Associated With a Pancreatic Duct Stent Retained for 13 Years in Chronic Alcoholic Pancreatitis: A Case Report — Koichi Soga, Ou Takagi, Yutarou Koike et al. — DEN open — doi:10.1002/deo2.70427
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.