Acute Pancreatitis with Duodenal Diverticulum

Abstract

Abstract:Intraluminal duodenal diverticulum is a recognised but rare cause of acute pancreatitis. CASE REPORT: we recently encountered this lesion in a 65 year old woman. She had no history of gallstones with no any medications or alcohol consomation. She presented to our hospital because of worsening abdominal pain for three days. The pain was initially in the upper abdomen but later radiated to the back. Epigastric tenderness was evident on physical examination. She had a history of similar painful episodes occurring infrequently for a few years but the pain had never been so severe. She had never previously sought medical attention for this pain. Her pancreatic enzymes were found to be elevated. Interestingly, a subsequent CT scan showed an irregular pancreatic outline consistent with pancreatitis and parapapillary diverticulum (15 mm). No intervention was needed since the patient's condition started to improve with conservative management and the patient was found to be doing well at his one year follow-up visit with medical treatment. The majority of duodenal diverticula are asymptomatic. Clinical presentation may be characterized by non-specific abdominal symptoms. However, complications are responsible for presentation in most cases.