EPIDEMIOLOGY OF 116 EPISODES OF ACUTE-PAN CREATITIS - A PROSPECTIVE-STUDY

Objective: To gather epidemiological data about acute pancreatitis (A. P.) in our environment. Experimental design: A prospective analysis of a series of patients in whom A.P. was diagnosed. Patients. 116 patien ts with abdominal pain, elevation of pancreatic enzymes and absence of other acute abdominal pathology. Results: These patients made up 2.8% of all emergency admissions to medical departments. Frequency of A.P was 331 cases per million inhabitants/year. The biliary etiology was t he most frequent (70.7%) followed by idiopathic forms (19.8%) and thos e deriving from alcohol abuse (7.8%). Mean patient age was 64.88 + 15. 82 years, while patients with alcoholic A.P were significantly younger than the other two groups. Women predominated in cases with biliary e tiology, while men did so in alcoholic A.P In cases of biliary A. P. a milasemia levels were significantly higher on admission (2598) than fo r other groups (1132 in alcohol related cases and 1692 in idiopathic o nes). The overall rate of complications was 18.1%. Finally, overall mo rtality was 5.1%. Conclusions. Althrough the mean age of our patients was advanced, morbidity and mortality rates were low.