Abstract Fifty-three cases of chronic and acute pancreatitis on whom biliary tract surgery was performed have been discussed. Biliary tract disease was present in all but six of these. Common duct stone was found in 66 per cent of those with biliary tract disease and chronic pancreatitis and in 78 per cent of those with acute pancreatitis. The surgical treatment, in the vast majority of cases, involved a drainage of the common duct as well as a direct attack on the pancreas. The mortality rate in chronic pancreatitis is that inherent in surgery on the biliary tract, and the mortality rate in acute pancreatitis that found in severe peritonitis. Peritonitis was the predominant cause of death in all cases. The prophylaxis of both chronic and acute pancreatitis lies in the early surgical treatment of the preexisting biliary tract infection.