The reasonable timing of operation for the patients with non-infectious pancreatic necrosis of severe acute pancreatitis

Objective To investigate the reasonable operation timing for patients with acute pancreatitis without obvious infectious manifestation. Methods The findings during the operation and pathological changes in 27 pantients with necrotic pancreatitis were analysed retrospectively.Results Six patients underwent surgical treatment with in 3 weeks. The delimitation between non-necrotic pancreas and necrotic pancreas was not very clear, and the abdominal adhesion and edema were serious. Other 14 cases were subjected to the surgical treatment 3-4 weeks after the onset of illness. The delimitation was clear in 9 cases without obviously infectious signs, but the adhesion of the pancreas bed to the greater omentum or the transverse mesocolon was evident. Various degrees of necrosis was found in 3 cases, and the infection together with pancreatic necrosis developed in the other 2 cases. The rest 7 patients were operated on 5-7 weeks after the disease onset, different degrees of infection and necrosis developed in 3 cases, and local pancreatic abscess formation could be observed.There was a lot of necrosis of fatty tissues on the peri-pancreas and the root of mesentery. Conclusions Clear away of necrotic pancreatic tissue is suitable in 3-4 weeks after the onset of illness in patients with non-infectious necrosis of pancreas.If operation is performed in the initial 3 weeks, intraoperative bleeding may be severe because the detachment between the non-necrotic tissues and necrotic tissues of pancreas was not yet formed completely, which may lead to hard to do the operation and result in increasing intraoperative bleeding and even increasing reoperation .If operation was done after 5 weeks, the infection of the necrotic pancreatic tissues can be seen in most of the cases, and the infection degree in the abdominal cavity may also be serious, which may need more operations to treat.