Learning About Acute Pancreatitis

What is acute pancreatitis?

The pancreas is an organ behind the stomach. It makes hormones like insulin that help control how your body uses sugar. It also makes enzymes that help you digest food.

Usually these enzymes flow from the pancreas to the intestines. But if they leak into the pancreas, they can irritate it and cause pain and swelling. When this happens suddenly, it's called acute pancreatitis.

What causes it?

Most of the time, acute pancreatitis is caused by gallstones or by heavy alcohol use. But several other things can cause it, such as:

• High levels of fats in the blood.
• An injury.
• A problem after a surgery or a procedure.
• Certain medicines.

What are the symptoms?

The main symptom is pain in the upper belly. The pain can be severe. You also may have a fever, nausea, or vomiting. Some people get so sick that they have problems breathing. They also may have low blood pressure.

How is it diagnosed?

Your doctor will diagnose pancreatitis with an exam and by looking at your lab tests. Your doctor may think that you have this problem based on your symptoms and where in your belly you have pain.

You may have blood tests of enzymes called amylase and lipase. In pancreatitis, the level of these enzymes is usually much higher than normal.

You also may have imaging tests of the belly. These may include an ultrasound, a CT scan, or an MRI. A special MRI called MRCP can show images of the bile ducts. This test can be very helpful when gallstones are causing the problem.

How is it treated?

Most attacks of acute pancreatitis need treatment in the hospital. Your doctor will give you pain medicine and fluids through a vein (I.V.). You'll get these until the pain goes away.

Based on what caused the pancreatitis, you may need to stop drinking alcohol. And you may need to make changes to your diet, like eating low-fat foods. Changes like these help lower your risk for future attacks.

If gallstones are causing pancreatitis, you may need endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatogram (ERCP). It's a procedure to remove the stones if they don't pass on their own. You may need surgery to remove your gallbladder.

Most people get well after an attack of pancreatitis. But problems can happen. Problems may include cysts and infection. Or some of the tissue in the pancreas might die. Surgery may be done to remove a part of the pancreas that has been damaged. This surgery isn't common.