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Acute Pancreatitis

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Pathology

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Pathology ((EP))

Synonyms

Acute interstitial pancreatitis; Biliary pancreatitis; Infectious pancreatitis; Necrotizing pancreatitis; Post-ERCP pancreatitis

Definition

Acute pancreatitis is an acute inflammatory disorder of the pancreas, causing acute cellular damage of the acinar cells due to different etiological causes (Lankisch et al. 2015; Thoeni 2015).

The most common cause of acute pancreatitis in the Western world are gallstones that provoke an obstruction of large pancreatic ducts or of the ampullary region, with hindrance of the outflow of the pancreatic juice and thus induction of a subsequent inflammation (Yadav and Lowenfels 2013). The other important cause is alcohol, which causes cellular damage due to increased enzyme production and oversensitization to cholecystokinin (Vege 2019).

Other causes of pancreatitis are metabolic (e.g., hypertriglyceridemia, hypercalcemia, diabetes), toxic (e.g., methanol, scorpion, and snake venom), drug-related(corticosteroids, azathioprine, diuretics,...

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References and Further Reading

  • Bollen, T. L. (2016). Acute pancreatitis: International classification and nomenclature. Clinical Radiology, 71(2), 121–133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crad.2015.09.013.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Klöppel, G. (2018). Histopathology of acute pancreatitis. In H. G. Beger, A. L. Warshaw, R. H. Hruban, M. W. Büchler, M. M. Lerch, J. P. Neoptolemos, T. Shimosegawa, D. C. Whitcomb, & C. Groß (Eds.), The Pancreas: An Integrated Textbook of Basic Science, Medicine and Surgery, 3rd Edition, Oxford, UK, pp. 193-198

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  • Lankisch, P. G., Apte, M., & Banks, P. A. (2015). Acute pancreatitis, no particular phenotype. Lancet, 386, 85–96.

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  • Nesvaderani, M., Eslick, G. D., Vagg, D., Faraji, S., & Cox, M. R. (2015). Epidemiology, aetiology and outcomes of acute pancreatitis: A retrospective cohort study. International Journal of Surgery, 23, 68–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thoeni, R. F. (2015). Imaging of acute pancreatitis. Radiologic Clinics of North America, 53(6), 1189–1208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rcl.2015.06.006.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vege, S. S. (2019). Etiology of acute pancreatitis. UpToDate, Waltham, MA. UpToDate. https://www.uptodate.com/contents/etiology-of-acute-pancreatitis. Accessed 20 Aug 2019.

  • Yadav, D., & Lowenfels, A. B. (2013). The epidemiology of pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer. Gastroenterology, 144(6), 1252–1261.

    Article  Google Scholar 

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Pathology, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz, Germany

    Anne Kraft & Matthias M. Gaida

Authors
  1. Anne Kraft
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  2. Matthias M. Gaida
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Matthias M. Gaida .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. NIJMEGEN, The Netherlands

    J.H.J.M. van Krieken

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Kraft, A., Gaida, M.M. (2021). Acute Pancreatitis. In: van Krieken, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Pathology. Encyclopedia of Pathology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28845-1_5513-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28845-1_5513-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28845-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28845-1

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