[Treatment of exocrine pancreatic insufficiency with fungal lipase (author's transl)].

7 patients suffering from severe exocrine pancreatic insufficiency have been treated with a lipolytic enzyme extracted from Rhizopus arrhizus. Comparing the fungal lipase with a placebo the drug lowered the daily stool weight from 809 g to 443 g on an average, i.e. by 45.2%. The steatorrhea was reduced from 75.6 g/24 h to 32.9 g, i.e. by 56.5%. When incubating the enzyme in vitro in saline solutions of different pH for 1 h the loss of lipolytic activity is 13% at pH 5, 15% at pH 4, and 19% at pH 3. So the enzyme, like fungal proteases, is almost not altered by hydrochloric acid at concentrations found physiologically in the stomach.