Comparative study on acute pancreatitis management

Abstract

Overall, both a tertiary referral centre and smaller regional hospital in Australia managed acute pancreatitis according to recently published BSG guidelines. The guidelines emphasized the importance of expertise in hepatopancreatobiliary surgery, availability of intensive care unit/high dependency unit and dynamic CT scanning. The recommendations for definitive treatment of patients with gallstone-related pancreatitis within 4 weeks of presentation reduced the morbidity and mortality in this group. Although compliance with the guidelines on investigation for severity stratification of acute pancreatitis was poor, this lack of formal severity assessment did not appear to influence the outcome.