Clinical, Biochemical, and Radiological Correlation in the Severity of Acute Pancreatitis: A Retrospective Study

To analyze the etiologies and the varying clinical presentations and to validate the clinical, biochemical, and radiological signs with severity and prognosis of acute pancreatitis.

A retrospective study of 1316 patients diagnosed with acute pancreatitis in an industrial hospital in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, was conducted, and their clinicoradiological profiles, etiological factors, and outcomes were studied.

A total of 1316 cases were enrolled, out of which maximum cases (411 [31.23%]) were from the age group of 30-44 years, and the mean and median age were 44.54 and 47 years, respectively. A total of 731 (55.45%) patients had social habits (i.e., alcohol and smoking), and 585 (44.45%) patients did not have any social habits. Based on the etiology of acute pancreatitis (AP), the majority of cases were due to alcoholism (710 [53.95%]) followed by gallstone (343 [26.06%]) and idiopathic pancreatitis (217 [16.48%]). As per the severity of AP, most patients showed mild pancreatitis (937 [71.20%]) followed by moderate (312 [23.71%]) and severe pancreatitis (67 [05.09%]). Mild and moderate pancreatitis patients were shown in 85 and 28 cases, respectively, suggestive of chronic pancreatitis after repeated episodes of AP. But severe pancreatitis shown in 19 cases had hypocalcemia + shock + multi-organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS). In mild, moderate, and severe AP, the mortality rates were 19 (02.03%), 44 (14.10%), and 21 (31.34%), respectively. Overall, 1232 (93.62%) of AP cases recovered and were discharged in stable condition, but 84 (06.38%) cases expired.

AP is a common cause of acute abdomen in patients presenting to the surgical emergency department. The management is mainly conservative with surgery limited to only a few selected cases, depending upon the severity of the disease.