Severity of acute pancreatitis: relationship with etiology, sex and age

To correlate the severity of acute pancreatitis with the etiology, age and sex of the patients.

158 consecutive acute pancreatitis patients (92 males, 66 females; mean age 59.7+/-18.1 years; mean+/-SD) who were admitted to our Emergency Department between January 1991 and March 1995 were included in this study. The diagnosis of acute pancreatitis was made on the basis of the characteristic abdominal pain associated with hyperamylasemia and hyperlipasemia and was further confirmed by ultrasonography and/or computed tomography findings.

Acute pancreatitis was associated with biliary disease in 112 patients (70.9%), due to alcohol abuse in 26 patients (16.5%), due to other causes in 8 (5.1%), and was of unknown origin in 12 (7.6%). On the basis of the Atlanta criteria, 110 patients (69.6%) were diagnosed as having mild acute pancreatitis and 48 (30.4%) as having the severe form of the disease. The age of the males was significantly lower than that of females; the age of patients with biliary pancreatitis was significantly higher than that of the overall population, whereas the age of patients with acute pancreatitis due to other causes was significantly lower. A significantly higher frequency of acute biliary pancreatitis was found in females (97.0%) as compared to males (52.2%), while alcoholic pancreatitis and pancreatitis due to other causes was present only in males (28.3% and 8.7%, respectively).

An age greater than 55 years, the male sex, pancreatitis of unknown origin and alcoholic pancreatitis were positively associated with the severity of the disease.