Acute Pancreatitis in an Alcohol Prohibited Society

Abstract

of investigations, e.g., sonography, cholecystogram, lipid profile, endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) outcome, surgical treatment, and complications. An attempt to define the etiology was made. ResultsTwenty-three cases of acute pancreatitis (0.03070) were admitted over this 40 month period. These were composed of 16 females (age range 12-79 ye~rs, mean 51.8 years) and 7 males (age range 7-59 years, mean 42.3 years). In all cases, the presentation was acute with abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting. In all instances the serum amylase was over 600 lUlL (normal range = 0-100 lUlL). In 21 out of 23 cases, the level was greater than 1,000 lUlL. The diagnostic tests and etiology are shown in Tables 1 and 2, respectively.The presence of gallstones was confirmed in nine patients, in one of which the pancreatitis occurred two days post-cholecystechtomy, and cholelithiasis was believed to be the causative factor. In three patients, hyperlipidemia was considered to be the predisposing factor. These three patients were known to have hyperHpidemia before their presentation with acute pancreatitis. A seven ye.ar old child presented with acute pancreatitis due to a mumps infection and one patient had a hydatid cyst obstructing the lower The exact cause of acute pancreatitis is uncertain in some patients. However, there are certain well documented predisposing causes such as alcoholism, 1 hyperlipidemia,2 hypercalcemia. J biliary tract disease ... • trauma,6 and familial inheritance.7 Within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, alcohol consumption is prohibited. We report a retrospective study of patients with acute pancreatitis who were admit1ed to the Riyadh Armed Forces Hospital over a 40 month period to show the relatively low incidence of alcoholism as an etjologic factor.

Acute Pancreatitis Complicating Intragastric Balloon Insertion

“…It is important to mention that the most common causes of acute pancreatitis, namely gallstones and alcohol, were excluded in this patient. Our previous observations have shown a low incidence of alcoholic pancreatitis in Saudi Arabia [ 12 ] that is probably related to alcohol prohibition in this country. 66% of 120 acute pancreatitis cases presented to our hospital were biliary in origin and 6% of them were due to alcohol [ 13 ].…”