Decreased mortality in acute pancreatitis related to early aggressive hydration.

Objective: Early aggressive intravenous hydration is believed to prevent morbidity and mortality by preventing intravascular volume depletion and maintaining perfusion of the pancreas possibly preventing pancreatic necrosis. The following study was initiated to determine the relationship between the observed decrease in mortality and the role of early aggressive hydration.

Methods: A consecutive series of patients with acute pancreatitis from a single community hospital in 1998 were compared to a consecutive series of patients with acute pancreatitis from the same institution in 2008.

Drug-induced acute pancreatitis: an evidence-based review.

The diagnosis of drug-induced acute pancreatitis often is difficult to establish. Although some medications have been shown to cause acute pancreatitis with a large body of evidence, including rechallenge, some medications have been attributed as a cause of acute pancreatitis merely by a single published case report in which the investigators found no other cause. In addition, some medications reported to have caused acute pancreatitis have obvious patterns of presentation, including the time from initiation to the development of disease (latency).

Early intensive resuscitation of patients with upper gastrointestinal bleeding decreases mortality.

Objective: Despite advances in diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopy, the mortality of patients with upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB) has remained relatively constant. Inadequate early resuscitation is believed to be a major factor in the persistently high mortality rate in patients with UGIB. In order to evaluate the role of intensive resuscitation in the outcome of patients with UGIB, we conducted the following prospective study.