Acute pancreatitis in the paediatric age group: a personal experience

Although relatively rare, acute pancreatitis is the most common disease complex involving the pancreas in the paediatric age group. The etiology of the disease is often unknown, and Italian epidemiological data on the paediatric population and, in particular, on the etiology of the disease are not available (except for studies of prevalence). Within the field of the most frequently encountered pancreatitis in the age range of our interest (i.e. 0-18 years), not only the commonly observed forms whose etiopathogenesis is ascribable to cholelithiasis must be mentioned but also those forms due to proteic-caloric malnutrition that are becoming increasingly common. The presenting clinical symptoms and signs may not be typical and the laboratory tests may not always be sensitive enough. In such age range chronic recurrent pancreatitis plays a very important epidemiologic role. Approximately 40% of children and teenagers admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of pancreatitis report a previous episode of the disease. Irreversible changes in pancreatic parenchyma develop in those patients in whom the disease progresses, leading to pancreatic insufficiency. Such a morbid condition (chronic pancreatitis) is more often observed in adolescents, in whom the disease manifests itself with a vague repetitive dyspeptic symptomatology, after alternating remissions and recrudescences, not always clinically evident. In children, the clinical picture most commonly encountered is represented by recurrent abdominal pains, in view of the fact that the patients are frequently affected by thalassaemia. The pseudocystic evolution of the disease is the most common organic damage resulting from the chronic progression of the pancreatic impairment. A few differences have been found with respect to severity, etiology, and mortality of pancreatitis in the paediatric age group as compared with older age groups. Both the general practitioner with a paediatric practice and the paediatrician encounter a large number of difficulties in this field of pathology. Therefore, an adequate and correct "management" of children with acute or chronic pancreatitis seems to be mandatory.