TITLE:
Acute pancreatitis in pregnancy—Up to date
AUTHORS:
Konstantinos Ntzeros, Ioannis Fragiadakis, Michael Stamatakos
KEYWORDS:
Acute Pancreatitis; Pregnancy; Diagnosis; Treatment; Complications
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology,
Vol.4 No.2,
February
19,
2014
ABSTRACT: Acute pancreatitis during pregnancy is a rare event
with wide variation in the incidence, ranging from 1:1000 to 1:10000.
Pancreatitis in pregnancy presents the same etiological causes as in general
population. However, differences are observed in the underlying mechanisms and
the prevalence of each cause in the pregnant population. Acute pancreatitis is
a complicated in diagnosis and treatment disease with various complications and
severe prognosis in general population as well as pregnant women. The severity
of acute pancreatitis is probably the most important issue that must be
elucidated as early as possible since pancreatitis is an evolving disease. Clinical
characteristics of acute pancreatitis in pregnancy do not differ from the
non-pregnancy state. The most important disease during the first trimester
which should be differentiated from acute pancreatitis is hyperemesis
gravidarum. Complications of acute pancreatitis affect differently the mother
and the fetus during pregnancy. Management of acute pancreatitis in pregnancy
is a controversial issue since the initial treatment is similar to the
non-pregnant patient but the subsequent management might differ due to the risk
of fetal disturbances or teratogenesis. The initial management of acute
pancreatitis is restricted in aggressive intravenous hydration. The
interventional treatment of acute pancreatitis in pregnancy can be divided into
three subcategories; the operational intervention for the disease itself, the
operational intervention for biliary tract cormobidities and the endoscopic
intervention. In conclusion, the initial assessment of acute pancreatitis
severity and the initial management of the patient are of great importance in
order to support the function and avoid failure of main organs.