title: Early phase of acute pancreatitis: Assessment and management.
abstract: Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a potentially life-threatening disease with a wide spectrum of severity. The overall mortality of AP is approximately 5%. According to the revised Atlanta classification system, AP can be classified as mild, moderate, or severe. Severe AP often takes a clinical course with two phases, an early and a late phase, which should both be considered separately. In this review article, we first discuss general aspects of AP, including incidence, pathophysiology, etiology, and grading of severity, then focus on the assessment of patients with suspected AP, including diagnosis and risk stratification, followed by the management of AP during the early phase, with special emphasis on fluid therapy, pain management, nutrition, and antibiotic prophylaxis.
authors.affiliation: Veit Phillip, Jörg M Steiner, Hana Algül, II. Medizinische Klinik und Poliklinik, Klinikum rechts der Isar der Technischen Universität München, 81675 München, Germany.
authors.forename: Veit
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Phillip
authors.affiliation: Veit Phillip, Jörg M Steiner, Hana Algül, II. Medizinische Klinik und Poliklinik, Klinikum rechts der Isar der Technischen Universität München, 81675 München, Germany.
authors.forename: Jörg M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Steiner
authors.affiliation: Veit Phillip, Jörg M Steiner, Hana Algül, II. Medizinische Klinik und Poliklinik, Klinikum rechts der Isar der Technischen Universität München, 81675 München, Germany.
authors.forename: Hana
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Algül
keywords: Acute pancreatitis; Antibiotic prophylaxis; Etiology; Fluid therapy; Incidence; Nutrition; Pain management; Pathophysiology; Risk stratification; Severity