Persistent organ failure during the first week as a marker of fatal outcome in acute pancreatitis

In predicted severe acute pancreatitis, many patients develop organ failure and recover without local complications, and mortality is only 14-30%. It has been suggested that half of patients with progressive early organ failure may die, but there are no data to relate death or local complications to duration of early (week 1) organ failure.

To determine mortality rates in patients with transient (48 hours) early organ failure and to show whether persistent organ failure predicts death or local complications. PATIENTS: A total of 290 patients with predicted severe acute pancreatitis previously studied in a trial of lexipafant, recruited from 78 hospitals through 18 centres in the UK. METHOD: Manual review of trial database to determine: the presence of organ failure (Marshall score > or =2) on each of the first seven days in hospital, duration of organ failure, and outcome of pancreatitis (death, complications by Atlanta criteria).