Acute Pancreatitis
Publication Date: March 1, 2018
Key Points
Key Points
- Acute pancreatitis (AP) is an inflammatory condition of the pancreas that can cause local injury, systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) and organ failure.
- The incidence of AP ranges from 5–30 cases per 100,000, and there is evidence that the incidence is rising in recent years.
- The overall case fatality rate for AP is roughly 5% and is expectedly higher for more severe disease.
- The most common causes of AP remain gallstones and alcohol, which together comprise 80% of cases. The remainder of cases is due to less common causes, including drug reactions, pancreatic solid and cystic malignancies, and hypertriglyceridemia.
- Patients with AP frequently suffer from abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting.
- The diagnosis of AP requires ≥2 of the following features:
- Characteristic abdominal pain
- Biochemical evidence of pancreatitis (i.e. amylase or lipase elevated >3 times the upper limit of normal) and/or
- Radiographic evidence of pancreatitis on cross-sectional imaging
Treatment
Treatmen...
...ummary of Recommendations of the AGA Clinical Gu...
...patients with acute pancreatitis, AGA suggests...
...nts with acute pancreatitis, AGA suggests again...
...tients with predicted severe acute pancrea...
...with acute biliary pancreatitis and no cholan...
...ith acute pancreatitis, AGA recommends...
...with acute pancreatitis and inability...
...patients with predicted severe or necrotizing...
...patients with acute biliary pancreati...
...with acute alcoholic pancreatitis,...