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Acute Pancreatitis: Does Gender Matter?

Digestive Diseases and Sciences volume 46, pages 2470–2474 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

In a number of gastrointestinal and nongastrointestinal diseases, gender has been proven to be an independent risk factor for severity. To determine whether this holds true for severity in acute pancreatitis is the aim of our study. This paper derives from a prospective study on the epidemiology of acute pancreatitis, which included 274 patients (172 male and 102 female) with a first attack of the disease. Severity parameters were: Atlanta criteria (arterial Po2 ≤ 60 mm Hg, and serum creatinine on admission >2 mg/dl after rehydration); Ranson's and Imrie's prognostic factors; APACHE II score; Balthazar-scored contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) results obtained within 72 hr of admission; days spent in the intensive care unit and total hospital stay; the necessity for artificial ventilation, dialysis, or surgery; and mortality. As already known, there is a significant association between gender and etiology of pancreatitis in general. Not surprisingly, the men in our study had alcohol-induced acute pancreatitis more frequently than women, whereas biliary pancreatitis predominated among the women. As for severity, there was no significant association between gender and any of the severity parameters with a few minor exceptions: longer hospital stays, higher Imrie scores and more pseudocysts for women, and more necroses in women with idiopathic pancreatitis. Thus, gender is no independent risk factor for the severity and outcome of acute pancreatitis.

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Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, Municipal Clinic of Lüneburg, Lüneburg, Germany

    Paul Georg Lankisch & Christine Assmus

  2. Institute for Statistics and Econometrics, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

    Dirk Lehnick

  3. European Institute of Oncology, Milano, Italy

    Patrick Maisonneuve

  4. New York Medical College, Valhalla, New York, USA

    Albert B. Lowenfels

Authors
  1. Paul Georg Lankisch
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  2. Christine Assmus
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  3. Dirk Lehnick
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  4. Patrick Maisonneuve
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  5. Albert B. Lowenfels
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Lankisch, P.G., Assmus, C., Lehnick, D. et al. Acute Pancreatitis: Does Gender Matter?. Dig Dis Sci 46, 2470–2474 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012332121574

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012332121574

  • acute pancreatitis
  • gender
  • etiology
  • prognostic scores
  • severity
  • mortality