What’s new in the management of acute pancreatitis?

Acute severe pancreatitis remains a disease with multiple complications and high mortality rates. The body of knowledge about clinical pancreatitis is being subjected to rigorous evidence-based analysis, and relevant, practical guidelines have been issued. Great efforts are being made to identify and profile the mediators involved in the systemic hyperinflammatory response to acute pancreatic injury. Lexipafant, a platelet-activating factor antagonist that showed promising results in initial trials, failed to reduce the incidence of new organ failures or mortality in a large double-blind study. The search for an early and accurate prognostic marker for severity persists, with urinary trypsinogen activation peptide as a potentially suitable candidate. Patients with acute pancreatitis do not benefit from anti-secretory therapy with octreotide. Percutaneous, radiological, drainage techniques may eventually play an important role in the management of infected necrosis.