title: Energetic etiologies of acute pancreatitis: A report of five cases.
abstract: There are several common causes of acute pancreatitis, principally excessive alcohol intake and gallstones, and there are many rare causes. However, cases of pancreatitis still occur in the absence of any recognizable factors, and these cases of idiopathic pancreatitis suggest the presence of unrecognized etiologies. Five cases of acute pancreatitis in four patients came to attention due to a strong temporal association with exposure to nerve stimulators and energy drinks. Given that these cases of pancreatitis were otherwise unexplained, and given that these exposures were not clearly known to be associated with pancreatitis, we performed a search for precedent cases and for mechanistic bases. No clear precedent cases were found in PubMed and only scant, weak precedent cases were found in public-health databases. However, there was a coherent body of intriguing literature in support of a mechanistic basis for these exposures playing a role in the etiology of pancreatitis.
authors.affiliation: Artem Shmelev, Alain Abdo, Sarina Sachdev, Urvi Shah, Gopal C Kowdley, Steven C Cunningham, The Department of Surgery, Saint Agnes Hospital, Baltimore, MD 21229, United States.
authors.forename: Artem
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shmelev
authors.affiliation: Artem Shmelev, Alain Abdo, Sarina Sachdev, Urvi Shah, Gopal C Kowdley, Steven C Cunningham, The Department of Surgery, Saint Agnes Hospital, Baltimore, MD 21229, United States.
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Abdo
authors.affiliation: Artem Shmelev, Alain Abdo, Sarina Sachdev, Urvi Shah, Gopal C Kowdley, Steven C Cunningham, The Department of Surgery, Saint Agnes Hospital, Baltimore, MD 21229, United States.
authors.forename: Sarina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sachdev
authors.affiliation: Artem Shmelev, Alain Abdo, Sarina Sachdev, Urvi Shah, Gopal C Kowdley, Steven C Cunningham, The Department of Surgery, Saint Agnes Hospital, Baltimore, MD 21229, United States.
authors.forename: Urvi
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Shah
authors.affiliation: Artem Shmelev, Alain Abdo, Sarina Sachdev, Urvi Shah, Gopal C Kowdley, Steven C Cunningham, The Department of Surgery, Saint Agnes Hospital, Baltimore, MD 21229, United States.
authors.forename: Gopal C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Kowdley
authors.affiliation: Artem Shmelev, Alain Abdo, Sarina Sachdev, Urvi Shah, Gopal C Kowdley, Steven C Cunningham, The Department of Surgery, Saint Agnes Hospital, Baltimore, MD 21229, United States.
authors.forename: Steven C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Cunningham
keywords: Chronic pain; Energy drinks; Etiology; Pancreatitis; Transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation