Acute Pancreatitis Case Summary

During this Grand Round Dr. Anderson started by presenting statistical data that showed the incidence and mortality of acute pancreatitis in the ICU. Acute pancreatitis (AC) is about the 2nd- 3rd most common GI disorder that receive admission in ICU in the US and 10-15% of these ones develop a severe stage of the disease with an increase in mortality up to 30%. In the US, it is expended about one billion dollar in health care to support/treat AC patients. From these cases of AC, 45% are Gallstone caused and 35% are Alcohol abused related. Once Dr. Anderson showed, using stats, the importance of the management of AC in the ICU, then she defined the pathophysiology of AC and the current medical practices/ guidelines in the ICU. The pancreatitis is the results of an initial stimulus (gallstones, alcohol …show more content…
The patients usually get to the hospital with epigastric pain, tachycardia, and hypoxemia (these are common in other disease too); Cullen sign and/or Grey Sign are also physical sign of AC but occur at a late phase and are more specific of AC. The Revised Atlanta Criteria is used since 2012 to help identify patients with high risk for AC. Lastly, Dr. Anderson talked about important variables to considering during the management of these patients. The timing is a defining factor to succeed treating patients with AC. First of all, it is necessary to know when the first symptoms appeared and start counting the days from that first instance. This will help to diagnose and treat better; for instance, although imaging methods are used to help the diagnosis, these methods are no help during the first 3-4 days after the first symptom, at this point looking at pro-inflammatory markers and cytokines cascade is more