Acute pancreatitis

Suspicion of acute pancreatitis must arise with abdominal pain and oral food intolerance. This mainly occurs in a patient who has undergone abdominal trauma or presents an underlying systemic disease with an added infection, vascular or hemodynamic component, or if the patient is receiving multiple drugs. Apparently healthy children < 4 years of age can display pancreatitis as a result of congenital alterations that favor the condition such as pancreas divisum and metabolic or hereditary diseases, emphasizing that the latter are related to recurrent or chronic pancreatitis. Diagnosis must be confirmed with pancreatic enzyme determination and an imaging study such as abdominal tomography or magnetic resonance. Immediate treatment is aimed at support, maintaining an appropriate hydration state and metabolic balance in addition to avoiding pancreatic stimulation through fasting and gastric decompression. In serious cases, the evolution tends to be prolonged. For this reason, in addition to these measures, opportune nutritional support must be instituted through parenteral nutrition or by enteral nutrition with nasojejunal catheter. Finally, it is indispensable to detect and to opportunely treat complications like pancreatic necrosis, secondary infection and multiple organ failure.