Acute pancreatitis: the Queensland scene.
One hundred patients suffering from acute pancreatitis and studied in two large teaching hospitals in Brisbane between 1959 and 1973 were reviewed. Gallstones were present in 43 patients (of whom 31 were female), and a history of alcoholic excess were elicited in 23. Sixty-three patients were aged over 50 years. Characteristic clinical features included spreading epigastric pain with radiation to either of the upper quadrants of the abdomen. Left-sided upper abdominal peritonitis associated with severe repetitive vomiting was suggestive of the diagnosis. The serum level in most cases fell below the arbitrary diagnostic level of 500 Somogyi units/100 ml within 72 hours of the onset of the pain. Acute haemorrhagic necrosis of the pancreas was positively diagnosed in 15 patients, six of whom died. The overall mortality rate in the series was 9%.
D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000681:Amylases / Q000097:blood; D002769:Cholelithiasis / Q000150:complications; D004796:Clinical Enzyme Tests; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010195:Pancreatitis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery; D012008:Recurrence
D000681:Amylases