Why a detailed examination after acute pancreatitis?

During the 1965-9 period, we studied the consequences of acute pancreatitis in a group of 53 patients (1). Using the 1963 Marseille classification of pancreatitis (2), we pointed, inter alia, to the incidence of changes in exocrine and endocrine functions of the pancreas in some patients (something that we would refer to as residua after acute pancreatitis, today), and emphasized the need for a detailed examination of patients, following an attack of acute pancreatitis. In this article we wish to reemphasize the need for such detailed examination, this time in connection with new classifications of pancreatitis, i.e., the Revised Classification of Pancreatitis--Marseille, 1984 (3), and the Pancreatitis Classification of Marseille-Rome 1988 (4,5). The latter classification, based on studies of lesions and causes of pancreatitis, constitutes yet another attempt to integrate pathology into the prerequisites for clear-cut definition of the disease. However, a definition of pancreatitis, based on pathological findings, remains an aim yet to be attained in everyday clinical practice. That is why the clinician will rely on the Marseille classification (1984), taking into account the Marseille-Rome classification (1988).