Objective: The study was aimed for evaluation of successfulness and efficiency of longterm percutaneous drainage in pancreatic pseudocysts. Material and methods: Sixty four patients with resistant pseudocysts of the pancreas demonstrated by contrast CT examination whose complaints were related to the pseudocysts were treated with long-term percutaneous drainage. The size of the pseudocyst was 5–7 cm in 22 cases, 8–10 cm in 30 cases, 10–12 cm in 7 cases and larger than 12 cm in 5 cases. The pseudocysts were divided according to classification of D’Egidio and Schein into three groups: a postnecrotic type of the cysts I, a postnecrotic type of the cysts II and a retention type of the cysts III. Results: All patients (64) were treated with percutaneous drainage lasting from 3 weeks to 25 months. Sixty two patients with pancreatic pseudocysts were cured up, and two pseudocysts were diminished to half of the original size. Undesirable effects of the drainage were noted in two cases, the first being caused by bending of the drain in the pseudocysts, where the treatment was interrupted, but the patient was cured up due to fibrotic reconstruction of the pseudocyst, in the other case caused by infection which penetrated into the pseudocyst from the colon, where the drain was installed aiming at the pseudocyst, and the subsequent sepsis was treated with antibiotics administered systemically as well as locally by injection needle directly into the pseudocyst which was consequently cured up as well. Other undesirable effects, such as chrosepsis, temperature and pain were not observed. It proved to be impossible to introduce the catheter by the trocar way for marked fibrous changes caused by an inflammatory process and the drainage was therefore repeated by the Seldinger method, which made introduction of the drains possible. Conclusion: The percutaneous drainage is a safe and efficient method for the treatment of pancreatic pseudocysts in chronic pancreatitis. The authors noted only two cases of complications caused by catheter, caused by bending of the catheter in the pseudocyst in one and introduction of infection into the the pseudocyst in the other case, both of them being finally cured up.

        Key words: chronic pancreatitis – pancreatic pseudocyst – cystic tumors of the pancreas – percutaneous catheter drainage