Acute pancreatitis

For a lay person:

Acute pancreatitis is sudden inflammation of the pancreas, the gland behind the stomach. It is most often caused by gallstones or heavy drinking, causes severe pain in the upper abdomen spreading to the back, and can become life-threatening.

For a trained medical person:

Premature activation of pancreatic enzymes causing autodigestion, most commonly from gallstones and alcohol, with hypertriglyceridaemia, hypercalcaemia, drugs and ERCP as other causes. Diagnosis requires two of characteristic pain, serum lipase or amylase above three times normal, and imaging findings. Management is hospital care with fluid resuscitation, analgesia and early feeding, treatment of gallstone causes, and management of necrosis and organ failure.

In Chinese medicine:

Liu and Tseng's textbook differentiates this condition into these patterns: Qi Stagnation and Heat Accumulation; Liver and Gallbladder Damp-Heat; Excess Heat in Stomach and Intestines; Blood Stasis and Qi Stagnation. Treatment follows the pattern a patient presents with, not the Western diagnosis alone.

When to get help: Severe upper abdominal pain spreading to the back, especially with vomiting, needs emergency care. Acute pancreatitis is treated in hospital; Chinese medicine is adjunctive at most and only alongside medical care.