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
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