Publication:

Clinical profile of patients with acute pancreatitis

Background The observation on acute pancreatitis showed that the ultimate severity is determined by events that occur during the early stages of pancreatitis has prompted several groups of investigators to undertake studies designed to determine which clinical, chemical, or radiologic parameters might be used to identify those patients destined to experience a severe illness. Therefore the present study is designed to evaluate the clinical profile of patients suffering from acute pancreatitic patients.

Methods The study population consisted of 40 cases of acute pancreatitis that fulfilled the diagnostic criteria. Data collection on admission included age, sex, address and clinical presentation with respect to pain vomiting, gallstones trauma and drugs was noted. History of precious episodes and co- morbidities was noted. Chi-square tests were employed to find out the difference between groups of frequencies obtained for the specific statements. A P value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results Out of 40 patients, Males were (55%) and (45%) were females. Majority of patients were belonging to the age group of 41-60 (42.5%) with a median age of 37 yrs. Most common etiology for acute pancreatitis was biliary (55%) followed by alcoholism (32.5%), hyperlipidaemia (2.5%) and traumatic (2.5%) pancreatitis was found in one patient each and where no cause was found was labelled as idiopathic (7.5%). Biliary pancreatitis was the cause of acute pancreatitis in Females 88.3%. In males, alcoholism induced pancreatitis (50%) was most common, second commonest was biliary etiology.

Conclusions The most common etiology for acute pancreatitis was biliary followed by alcoholism and traumatic pancreatitis.  In Males, alcoholism induced pancreatitis was most common, second commonest was biliary etiology.