Core evidence.

Clinical impact summary for pancrelipase and pancreatic exocrine insufficiency

Outcome measure	Evidence	Implications
Disease-oriented evidence	Randomized, double-blind, placebocontrolled trials showed that pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy with pancrelipase even for short periods of a few weeks improved steatorrhea and the coefficient of fat absorption and of nitrogen absorption along with increase in body weight, in both pediatric and adult patients with chronic pancreatitis and cystic fibrosis	Pancrelipase improves maldigestion and malnutrition, which leads to restoration of nutritional conditions, irrespective of age
Patient-oriented evidence
Clinical symptoms	Stool frequency, stool consistency, and abdominal pain were improved after PERT with pancrelipase	PERT with pancrelipase ameliorates clinical symptoms effectively, with good tolerability and without serious adverse events
Gastrointestinal adverse events	Some gastrointestinal adverse events such as nausea, diarrhea, and abdominal pain, were observed No serious adverse events were observed in clinical trials with pancrelipase approved by the US FDA
Economic evidence	Not available

Abbreviations: FDA, Food and Drug Administration; PERT, pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy.