How is acute recurrent pancreatitis diagnosed and treated?

  The etiology of acute pancreatitis is unknown in 20-30% of patients in clinical practice, and only symptomatic and supportive treatment is available for such patients, so a significant proportion of patients have recurrent attacks, called recurrent idiopathic pancreatitis (RIP). The aim of this project is to develop clinically individualized treatment plans for patients with RIP based on different etiologies. More and more patients with pancreatitis will benefit from the establishment of norms for the diagnosis and treatment of recurrent pancreatitis in general hospitals to reduce the recurrence rate of pancreatitis.  Studies have shown that after the non-invasive evaluation to find the cause of acute pancreatitis, endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) can reveal the cause in about 70-90% of the remaining patients. In patients with recurrent pancreatitis, detailed diagnosis and treatment are performed, including history taking, alcohol intake, laboratory tests and imaging aids, excluding metabolic factors (hyperlipidemia, hypercalcemia, etc.) or biliary pancreatitis with positive gallstones, and in cases where the etiology is still not clear from the above non-invasive tests, ERCP and related diagnostic operations are performed, and based on the combined results, an Individualized treatment plan, i.e., minimally invasive endoscopic treatment plan, observation of efficacy and follow-up of prognosis and recurrence.  In addition to ERCP examination, a variety of diagnostic techniques are integrated to perform the examination: 1. endoscopic manifestations: papillary morphology, parapapillary diverticulum and relationship with papillary opening; 2. cholangiography: bile duct and pancreatic duct transverse diameter, presence of bile-pancreatic duct stones, bile-pancreatic duct stenosis, and judgment of congenital variants (e.g. pancreatic splitting, pancreaticobiliary duct confluence abnormalities, etc.); 3. bile analysis microscopy: recording of bile duct micro 4.Intra-biliary ultrasound (IDUS): to explore microstones in the bile duct and to judge the nature of stenotic lesions; 5.Sphincter of Oddi manometry: to record the basal pressure and amplitude of the bile duct and pancreatic duct sphincter.  Through the integration and implementation of the above diagnostic techniques, a comprehensive judgment of the etiology of RIP patients is made and an individualized treatment plan is developed.  Although the results of domestic and international studies have shown the superiority of ERCP and related techniques in the diagnosis and treatment of RIP, at this stage there is no unified and standardized standard for the diagnosis and endoscopic interventional treatment of recurrent RIP in China, which is mainly reflected in: 1. Most general hospitals have not yet established ERCP-related diagnostic and treatment techniques: such as bile analysis, sphincter of Oddi manometry, and endobiliary and pancreatic duct ultrasound, etc.; 2. There are no unified and standardized criteria for the diagnosis and endoscopic intervention of RIP, including: (1) differences in treatment methods for the same etiology; (2) differences in endoscopic treatment techniques: whether the bile duct or pancreatic duct sphincter is incised, the choice of incision size; indications for pancreatic duct stent application, the choice of pancreatic duct stent and placement time.  Therefore, it is particularly important to develop a standardized etiological diagnosis system for recurrent pancreatitis and to establish individualized treatment plans for recurrent pancreatitis.