Acute Pancreatitis

The clinical manifestations of acute pancreatitis have been studied in a group of 98 patients admitted to the Cincinnati General Hospital during the years 1941 to 1948 inclusive. Since some patients were admitted more than once with the same diagnosis, a total of 111 admissions was available for analysis. The diagnosis for each admission was based on at least one of the following criteria: (1) a consistent clinical history in conjunction with an elevated serum amylase level; (2) surgical observations, and (3) postmortem examination. In each case that was analyzed acute pancreatitis was considered to have been the chief or a major factor in the illness. A complete review of the subject of pancreatitis, including the etiology, pathology, diagnosis and treatment, has recently been discussed elsewhere by us.1 CLINICOPATHOLOGIC TYPES The disease of acute pancreatitis, a loose clinical term, included three general clinicopathologic types which could be differentiated by