Aetiological factors of Acute Pancreatitis

Abstract

Acute pancreatitis is a non-bacterial inflammation of pancrease. It is caused by a variety of aetiological factors. The two most common being gall stones and alcoholism. Tegether they account for 80%0 cases of acute pancreatitis. The other causes are abdominal trauma, hyperlipidaemia, hypercalcaemia and viral infections. This descriptive, non-interventional case report study was conducted at Mayo Hospital, Lahore from March 1998 to February 2000, to study the aetiological factors in our circumstances. It included 45 patients with mean age of 45 years and male to female ratio of 1:1. Gall stones were the commonest factor in 53.33% (n=24), followed by abdominal trauma is 28.88% (n=13). Alcohol in take, ERCP, hyperlipidaemia and idiopathic pancreatitis were 6.66%, 4.44%, 4.44% and 2.22% respectively. The overall mortality was 22.22% (n=10).