Acute Pancreatitis after Prolonged Fast and Subsequent Surfeit

IT has been almost customary in all reports dealing with acute pancreatitis to refer to the famous case reported by Opie.1 The appeal of this report lay in the fact that a logical cause- and-effect relation was established between the obstruction of the distal common bile duct by an impacted stone and the development of acute pancreatitis. Innumerable subsequent reports concerned with the problem of acute pancreatitis have demonstrated that a single etiologic factor cannot be implicated to explain all cases of pancreatitis. Recent reviews of the subject2 , 3 summarize well the many causes that must be considered when inflammatory disease . . .