Introduction:

Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a disease with a high degree of clinical complexity, and depending on its severity, it can have high morbidity and mortality rates, resulting in substantial health-care costs, particularly at the hospital level.

Materials and methods:

A descriptive study was developed based on the medical records of a tertiary referral university hospital. The records that included an ICD 10 diagnosis of acute pancreatitis between January 2011 and December 2018 were reviewed. All patients over the age of 18, of both sexes, with an AP diagnosis who met at least two of the 2012 Atlanta criteria were included in the study.

Results:

1 353 records were reviewed, of which 386 met the criteria for AP. There were 205 women (53%) and 181 males (47%) among them, and comorbidities were found in less than 10% of the participants. 38% of cases of pancreatitis occurred in people between 50 and 70 years of age. Regarding the etiology of AP, biliary origin was the most frequent with 200 cases (52%), followed by idiopathic (19.7%) and post-endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) in 33 patients (8.5%).

Conclusions:

AP is a common condition that affects adults of all ages and results in a high number of emergency room visits. Previous data in Colombia was only available for individuals with severe pancreatitis, and nothing was known about the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of acute pancreatitis in the emergency room.

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