[Metabolic changes in a patient in the early phase of acute pancreatitis]

The present paper reports on the perioperative metabolic changes in a 70-year-old female patient in whom an acute (oedematous) pancreatitis occurred during the transduodenal excision of a villous adenoma of the duodenal papilla. Since blood was taken for metabolic investigations before, during and after surgery, data on the changes in the intermediary metabolism during the early phase of acute pancreatitis in humans was recorded. Raised activity of the pancreatic enzymes amylase and lipase was demonstrable just minutes after extirpation of the papillary tumour after intraoperative cholangiography had been performed via a choledochotomy. This showed occlusion of the duodenal papilla as well as imaging the pancreatic duct. The reflux of bile into the pancreatic duct is considered to be one of the causative factors of acute pancreatitis (Opie-syndrome). The following metabolic changes were registered at surgery and on the first day thereafter: reduction in the serum concentration of cholesterol ester, the triglycerides and the phospholipids by 30 to 50% of the preoperative values respectively, as well as lactacidaemia (up to 60 mg/dl). At the same time, the serum bilirubin concentration and the concentrations of the amino acids alanine and glutamate in the serum were temporarily raised. The question is, whether these metabolic changes were a direct consequence of the activity of the pancreatic enzymes of amino acid and lipid metabolism that were released into the blood, or whether reduced synthesis by the liver (lipoproteins, lecithin: cholesterol-acyl-transferase) was responsible for these changes.