What is it?
Pancreatitis is an acute or chronic inflammation of the pancreas. Acute attacks are often characterized by severe abdominal pain that radiates from the upper belly through to the back and can cause effects ranging from mild pancreas swelling to life-threatening organ failure. Chronic pancreatitis is a progressive condition that involves a series of acute attacks. These attacks can cause intermittent or constant pain and can lead to permanent damage of pancreas tissues.
The pancreas is a narrow, flat organ located deep in the abdominal cavity, behind the stomach and below the liver. It is composed of exocrine tissues, which make powerful enzymes that help digest fats, proteins, and carbohydrates in the small intestine, and bicarbonate that helps neutralize stomach acids. It also has "islets" of endocrine tissues that produce the hormones insulin and glucagon, vital for the transportation of glucose into the body's cells.
Normally, most pancreatic digestive enzymes are produced and transported into the duodenum in an inactive form. While the exact mechanisms of pancreatitis are not well understood, it is thought that during pancreatitis attacks these enzymes are prevented or inhibited from reaching the duodenum, become activated while still in the pancreas, and begin to autodigest and destroy the pancreas.
Pancreatitis occurs more frequently in men than in women and is known to be linked to and aggravated by alcoholism and gall bladder disease (caused by gallstones that block the bile duct where it and the pancreatic duct join the duodenum). These two conditions are responsible for about 80% of acute pancreatitis attacks and figure prominently in chronic pancreatitis. Another 10% of the time the cause is idiopathic (unknown) and 10% of the time it is due to:
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