Acute liver damage in patients with acute pancreatitis

Objective To investigate the causes for and prognosis of acute liver damage in patients with acute pancreatitis. Methods A total of 149 acute pancreatitis patients with acute liver damage treated in our hospital from 1997 to 2000 were included in this study. The etiology of acute pancreatitis and results of laboratory tests for liver function were analyzed. Results The patients with acute liver damage accounted for 53.03% of all the patients in the same period of time. For which,the patients with biliary pancreatitis accounted for 66.44%. High levels of serum glutamic-pyruvic or serum glutamic-oxalacetic transaminase (46.31%),or elevated serum bilirubin (42.59%) were the main types of acute liver damage. Higher levels of serum or urine amylase,white blood cell count and glucose were significantly correlated to acute liver damage (P0.05). However,the severity degree of acute pancreatitis,renal function damage,respiratory insufficiency and the formation of pancreatic pseudocyst were not significantly correlated to the damage (P0.05). Conclusions Acute liver damage is a common extrapancreatic organ functional disorder in patients with acute pancreatitis. It might be developed as a result of systemic body inflammatory reaction and has no definite relation to prognosis of acute pancreatitis.