Frey's Procedure

Frey's procedure is a surgical technique used in the treatment of chronic pancreatitis in which the diseased portions of the head of the pancreas are cored out and a lateral pancreaticojejunostomy is performed, attaching a section of jejunum to the exposed pancreatic duct to improve drainage from the pancreatic head. It targets patients with head dominant chronic pancreatitis and, compared with the Puestow procedure, allows superior drainage of the pancreatic head. The procedure was first described in 1987 by American surgeon Charles Frederick Frey, born in 1929 in Michigan, who died on February 7, 2022.