Pancreatitis
Pancreas - an organ that makes bicarbonate to nutralize gastric acid, enzymes to digest the contents of a meal and insulin to signal the body to store ingested nutrients.
Acute Pancreatitis - An acute, potentially life-threatening condition presenting with severe abdominal pain in which the pancreas appears to digest itself. It is usually caused by gallstones, alcohol or is idiopathic.
Chronic Pancreatitis - an irreversible scarring of the pancreas with permanent loss of pancreatic function that typically causes unrelenting abdominal pain.
Hereditary Pancreatitis - a unusual form of acute and chronic pancreatitis that runs in families. The risk of pancreatic cancer is >50 times normal.
Notes:
The pancreas has 3 main functions. I makes:
Bicarbonate to nutralize gastric acid as the meal enters the small intestine,
Digestive enzymes - enough to turn an intire meal to liquid so that it can be absobed, and Insulin.
Acute pancreatitis can be defined clinically as an acute condition typically presenting with abdominal pain and is usually associated with elevated pancreatic enzymes in blood or urine, owing to inflammatory disease of the pancreas .
Chronic pancreatitis can be defined as a continuing inflammatory disease of the pancreas characterized by irreversible morphologic change and typically causing pain and/or permanent impairment of function. Clinically, about 80% present with recurrent or
Hereditary pancreatitis is an unusual form of pancreatitis that runs in families. Affected family members have BOTH acute pancreatitis and chronic pancreatitis that is indistinguishable from other forms of pancreatitis. These family members also have a