Incidence, Risk Factors and Clinical Course of Pancreatic Fluid Collections in Acute Pancreatitis

Acute pancreatitis is an acute inflammatory process of the pancreas with variable involvement of other regional tissues or remote organ systems. Acute fluid collections and pseudocyst formation are the most frequent complications of acute pancreatitis.

The aims of this study were to evaluate the incidence, risk factors, and clinical course of pancreatic fluid collections and pseudocyst formation following acute pancreatitis.

A prospective multicenter study was conducted in five participating centers with 302 patients diagnosed with acute pancreatitis from January 2011 to July 2012.

The incidence of pancreatic fluid collections and pseudocyst was 42.7 and 6.3 %, respectively. Patients with fluid collections were significantly younger, compared to those without fluid collections (51.5 ± 15.9 vs. 60.4 ± 16.5 years, P = 0.000). The proportion of alcoholic etiology (54.3 %) in patients with fluid collections was significantly higher compared to other etiologies (P = 0.000). C-reactive protein (CRP) (48 h) was significantly higher in patients with fluid collections, compared to patients without fluid collections (39.2 ± 77.4 vs. 15.1 ± 36.2 mg/dL, P = 0.016). LDH (48 h) was significantly higher in patients with pseudocyst formation, compared to patients with complete resolution (1,317.6 ± 706.4 vs. 478.7 ± 190.5 IU/L, P = 0.000). Pancreatic fluid collections showed spontaneous resolution in 69.8 % (90/129) and 84.2 % of the pseudocysts disappeared or decreased in size during follow up.

Age, CRP (48 h), and alcohol etiology are risk factors for pancreatic fluid collections. LDH (48 h) appears to be a risk factor for pseudocyst formation. Most pseudocysts showed a decrease in size or spontaneous resolution with conservative management.