Intensive medical treatment of severe acute pancreatitis

Pancreatic ischaemia in experimental acute pancreatitis: mechanism, significance and therapy

Much clinical and experimental evidence suggests that pancreatic ischaemia in the early phase of acute pancreatitis is important in the development of pancreatic necrosis. While depletion of intravascular volume has often been assumed to be the main circulatory defect, an additional disturbance of pancreatic microcirculation has been demonstrated experimentally. Possible contributory mechanisms include chemical-induced vasoconstriction, direct injury of vessel wall, intravascular coagulation and increased endothelial permeability resulting in pancreatic oedema, haemoconcentration and impaired venous drainage. Pancreatic ischaemia as a consequence of these local effects seems to be responsible for the transition of mild pancreatitis to parenchymal necrosis. In experimental models the beneficial effect of various drugs and of sympathetic blockade has been ascribed to an improvement in pancreatic perfusion. Although effective volume therapy is generally accepted as the mainstay of conservative treatment in acute pancreatitis, the efficacy of different fluid preparations is still controversial, and simple fluid resuscitation has not been shown to prevent the development of parenchymal necrosis. The specific impairment of pancreatic microcirculation cannot be prevented merely by replenishment of intravascular volume with crystalloids, albumin or plasma despite normalization of macrohaemodynamics. In contrast, partial replacement of blood by dextran preparations has been shown to increase pancreatic perfusion by improving blood fluidity. Isovolaemic haemodilution in conjunction with conventional fluid therapy may provide a new and effective means of protecting the pancreas from secondary injury due to the early ischaemic phase of acute pancreatitis.

Pancreatic debridement in acute necrotizing pancreatitis: an obsolete procedure?

Thirty-eight patients treated by pancreatic debridement for acute necrotizing pancreatitis were studied. Group 1 consisted of 12 critically ill patients who underwent early surgery. Group 2 was formed from 15 patients operated upon secondarily for supervening complications and group 3 contained 11 patients operated upon electively for gallstone pancreatitis. The operative mortality was 100, 27 and 0 per cent for groups 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Pancreatic debridement was associated with a high morbidity whether performed for complications (66 per cent) or elective biliary surgery (36 per cent). These data suggest that there is probably only limited indication for pancreatic debridement in patients with acute necrotizing pancreatitis.

Results of mobilization and drainage of the pancreas for acute pancreatitis

The surgical treatment of acute pancreatitis remains controversial. Since 1969, we treated 60 patients with acute pancreatitis. In 34 with severe acute pancreatitis who were not responding adequately to intensive medical care, surgical intervention was made by mobilization of the pancreas from retroperitoneal tissue and drainage of the pancreatic bed (M-D procedure). Thirty-four operative cases were classified into 7 edematous, 7 hemorrhagic, and 20 necrotizing. Macroscopic findings of the pancreas did not correlate either to the severity of the acute pancreatitis or to the mortality rate. Eight of 34 who underwent M-D procedure died (23 per cent), but the rate became 14.7 per cent after excluding 3 who died of unrelated causes. These data suggest that the M-D procedure is highly effective in the treatment of early cases of severe acute pancreatitis. There was an associated marked reduction in the mortality rate with the prophylactic use of broad spectrum antibiotics. With M-D procedure, there was a low incidence of late sequelae of pancreatic or peripancreatic abscess.