Pancreatitis in patients with chronic inflammatory bowel disease

We describe six patients with acute pancreatitis associated with chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and no other etiological factor of pancreatic disease in a series of 513 patients with IBD. Five of the 6 patients had Crohn's disease and one indeterminate colitis; four had simultaneous symptoms of active colitis. The pancreatis was not caused by drugs or duodenal involvement of IBD. Our study suggests that pancreatic disease is one of the extra-intestinal manifestations of IBD, in particular of Crohn's disease.