title: The aetiology of acute pancreatitis.
abstract: The most common aetiological factors of acute pancreatitis in an unselected group of 215 consecutive surgical patients were biliary tract disease (40.0%), alcoholism (20.0%) and gastroduodenal ulcer (4.2%). In women, biliary tract disease was by far the most common cause (61.3%), but in men considerably high frequencies of alcoholism (48.3%) and gastroduodenal ulcer (15.7%) were noted as at least one possible aetiological factor. This deserves a special notation when contemplating prophylactic measures to prevent recurrences of acute pancreatitis.
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000150:complications; D001660:Biliary Tract Diseases / Q000150:complications; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010195:Pancreatitis / Q000209:etiology*; D010437:Peptic Ulcer / Q000150:complications; D012737:Sex Factors