[Acute pancreatitis in a patient treated with hemodialysis]

Acute pancreatitis presents about 1% of all acute abdominal diseases. Its mortality is about 20-50%. The main etiological causes are diseases of the biliary tract and alcoholism. In 10-20% of cases the cause is still unknown. Chronic renal failure is also mentioned as a possible cause of acute pancreatitis. The purpose of this article was to show the frequency and course of acute pancreatitis in patients on haemodialysis during the last 15 years with a case report. From 1976, to 1991, in our Centre about 600 patients have been observed. The diagnosis of acute pancreatitis has been posed in 5 patients (0.8%). In 2 of them the course was easy, 2 died and 1 survived despite a number of complications and two surgical operations. Acute pancreatitis is a rare disease in patients on dialysis, but it is more frequent in them than in persons with healthy kidneys. The mortality in those patients is also high. With adequate care and treatment there is a possibility to survive even heavy type of acute pancreatitis.