Acute pancreatitis. A fatal complication of AIDS therapy

Pancreatic disease in patients with AIDS often is so mild that the diagnosis may be missed. The pancreas can be affected by systemic illness caused by opportunistic infections, Kaposi's sarcoma, or lymphoma. More commonly, drugs used to treat patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus can cause pancreatitis and result in significant morbidity and, rarely, mortality. We report one such case in a 47-year-old patient with AIDS in whom pancreatitis developed while taking 2',3'-dideoxyinosine (ddI). His condition improved on ddI withdrawal, but he suffered a fatal relapse while receiving 2',3'-dideoxycytidine and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. This case gives me the opportunity to review the literature regarding the incidence, causes, and diagnosis of human immunodeficiency virus-associated pancreatitis.