[Hemorrhage complications of acute pancreatitis (author's transl)]

The authors report 11 cases of hemorrhage due to vascular ulcerations arising early or late in the course of acute pancreatitis. The seriousness of these hemorrhages, the difficulties of their therapy are pointed out. In all cases, bleeding should be controlled by surgery. Therefore, attention is drawn to the need for prompt laparotomy in all the shocked patients who failed to respond to conservative measures, for in such cases, a fatal outcome may rapidly occur. The respective advantages and inconveniences of the 2 main surgical treatments, ligation of bleeding vessels or pancreatectomy removing the source of bleeding, are discussed, basing on the presently reported cases and the data of the literature.