Relation of Calcium and Lipids to Acute Pancreatic Necrosis

Many facts concerning acute pancreatic and the accompanying pathophysiologic changes have been well known for years. The yellow-white areas of necrosis in and around the pancreas were so named by Balser.1Langerhans2described the action of lipase in splitting neutral fat into fatty acid and glycerin, the latter being absorbed and the fatty acid deposited as needle-like crystals, which combine with calcium to form soaps. Frugoni and Stradiotti3stated that 85 per cent of the soaps so formed may be insoluble. Probably in no other disease is there such sudden demand for calcium, the amount needed depending on the extent of fat and the subsequent liberation of fatty acids. We have been unble to find records of further investigations of the role of calcium in this disease, either as to the amount combined with the fatty acids in situ or as to the effect