Clinical Profile and Outcomes in Patients with Acute Pancreatitis attending a Teaching Hospital at Gandaki Province, Nepal

Abstract

Background: Acute pancreatitis (AP) is inflammatory process of pancreas presenting with acute abdominal pain.The majority of patients have mild disease. Some patients develop local and systemic complications with increased morbidity and mortality. This study was undertaken to describe the clinical profile and outcomes in patients with acute pancreatitis.

Methods:  A cross-sectional hospital based study comprising of 62 consecutive patients with acute pancreatitis were enrolled between Jan 2019 to August 2020. Clinical profile at admission, complications and clinical outcomes including mortality were studied. Patients were classified into mild, moderately severe and severe acute pancreatitis based on revised Atlanta classification and modified CT severity index.  Data entry was done in Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences version 20.

Results: The mean age of study subjects was 44±10.87 years with 43 (56%) males and 19 (44%) females (M:F=2.1:1). The commonest etiology of pancreatitis was alcohol (53.2%) followed by biliary pancreatitis (37.1%)  The most common presentation was abdominal pain (100%). The most common complication was pancreatic necrosis (21%) followed by acute kidney injury (19.4%) and pleural effusion (17.3%). Majority( 72.6%) was mild and 17.7% had severe acute pancreatitis. Mortality was seen in 6.5% patients. Mortality was observed in patients with persistent complications, organ failure, low serum calcium and high modified CT severity index.

Conclusions: Alcohol and gallstones were the two main etiologies of acute pancreatitis and were common in males, and in middle age groups. Majority presented with mild severity. Mortality was observed in some patients with severe acute pancreatitis.

Keywords: alcohol; biliary; CT severity index; mortality; outcome; pancreatitis