A two-day workshop, PANCON 2004 on diagnosis and surgical treatment of pancreatic disorders will be held in Chennai at the Government Stanley hospital this weekend, beginning on Saturday.

According to R Surendran, head, Department of Surgical Gastroenterology, Stanley Hospital, the workshop will display latest trends in the treatment and diagnosis of pancreatic diseases. The programmes will emphasise on open surgery, laparoscopy, endoscopy and radiology guided treatment.

He said the main aim of the workshop would be to popularize the various surgical procedures in the field and about 400 professionals from different parts of the country would participate in the event.

In the earlier days, the number of procedures available were limited, as pancreas has some characteristics like softness, inability to stitch as the juices secreted by the organ make the suture materials and tissues disintegrate etc. Nowadays uncontrolled food habits and consumption of alcohol is increasing and the mortality rate in pancreatic diseases varies from 3 to 15 per cent, noted the expert.