What is acute pancreatitis?

And how it differs from recurrent and chronic

- May 6, 2020

Aminu Mohammed is a pediatric gastroenterologist at GI Care for Kids, where he leads the efforts on pancreatic disorders.

Pancreatitis is an irritation with inflammation of the pancreas; acute means that it starts suddenly—most children get over this quickly, but acute pancreatitis can be severe in 30% of the cases in childhood. About 16-25% of people who develop acute pancreatitis will have one or more episode with the first few years and that is known as recurrent pancreatitis. These repeated episodes can damage the pancreas and result in chronic pancreatitis. Fortunately, only 13-45 out of 100,000 people in the United States will develop chronic pancreatitis in a year.