Summary and Conclusions
Acute pancreatitis, on the basis of prognosis, falls into benign and malignant types.
Cortisone and its analogs have been shown to be life-saving in the “malignant” type. Its usefulness in the severe forms of the benign disease remains to be evaluated.
Many conditioning factors may be responsible for the failure of cortisone in some cases, but until a more accurate estimate of appropriate dosages is available, this agent cannot be fully evaluated.
The surgeon may now more confidently explore the abdomen in abdominal catastrophes of unknown etiology with the knowledge that he has in cortisone a potent hormone to provide nonspecific support against the trauma of surgery.
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Kaplan, M.H. Steroid therapy in acute pancreatitis. Digest Dis Sci 2, 696–702 (1957). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02239414
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02239414