Evaluation of the clinic-etiologic profile and outcome of acute pancreatitis: an observational study

Abstract

Background: Acute Pancreatitis is a common disease with wide clinical variation and its incidence is increasing. Acute pancreatitis is an inflammatory process leading to abdominal pain, progressive destruction of exocrine tissue and in some patients a loss of endocrine tissue as well, with multiple organ failure and high mortality. Severity of acute pancreatitis is linked to the presence of systemic organ dysfunction and/or necrotizing pancreatitis.  Aim: The present study was aimed to study etiology, clinical profile and outcome of acute pancreatitis.  Material and Methods: This study was a prospective observational study done in the Department of  General Surgery, Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College and Hospital, Gaya, Bihar, India for 18 months. The study population consisted of 120 cases of acute pancreatitis that fulfilled the diagnostic criteria. The diagnostic criteria included at least one of the three features. They are serum amylase more than 4 times the upper limit of normal, serum Lipase more than 2 times the upper limit of normal and ultrasound or CT scan suggestive of acute pancreatitis. History of precious episodes and co-morbidities was noted.  Results: Out of 120 patients included in study, 70 were males and 50 were females. In our study, majority of patients at the age group of 30-40 (44.17%) and followed by 40-50 years (32.5%). The youngest patient was 16 year and the oldest Patient was 71 years. All the patients (100%) presented with pain abdomen, 85.83% of them presented with nausea/vomiting, 46.67% of them presented with fever and 28.33 % of them with jaundice. In this study, 47.5% biliary pancreatitis was found to be the most common cause for acute pancreatitis. Alcoholism was the second most common cause (34.17%). Hyperlipidemia (4.17%) and traumatic (4.17%) pancreatitis was found in 5 patient each. Patients where no cause was found were labelled as idiopathic (10%). In males alcoholism induced pancreatitis was most common with a second commonest as biliary etiology. Conclusion: acute pancreatitis is one of the leading cause for increase morbidity and mortality to society. Cinical assessment along with lab markers correlated well with the mortality and morbidity.

Keywords: acute pancreatitis, clinical, morbidity, mortality.