Gallstones and pancreatitis

  Gallstone disease is currently the most significant biliary disease that harms our people, including liver and bile duct stones, gallbladder stones, and various complications caused by stones, with high incidence, complex conditions, and many complications.  The pancreas is the second largest gland in the body and has both exocrine and endocrine functions. The exocrine secretion of the pancreas is pancreatic juice, which is a transparent liquid, mainly composed of various digestive enzymes (such as pancreatic protease, pancreatic lipase, pancreatic amylase, etc.), water and bicarbonate. The endocrine secretion of the pancreas comes from the islet cells in the pancreas, which mainly secrete insulin and hormones required by the body such as growth inhibitors.  Acute pancreatitis (AP) is an inflammatory reaction in which pancreatic enzymes are activated in the pancreas due to various causes, resulting in self-digestion, edema, bleeding and even necrosis of the pancreatic tissue. Acute pancreatitis is a relatively common type of acute abdomen, with the 3rd to 5th highest incidence of acute abdomen. More than 80% of these patients have a mild condition, i.e. acute edematous pancreatitis, which can be cured by non-surgery and is basically an internal disease. However, about 10% of these patients belong to severe pancreatitis, namely acute hemorrhagic necrotizing pancreatitis, in which the inflammation of the pancreas is not reversible or self-limiting, often secondary to infection, peritonitis and shock, with high mortality.  Acute pancreatitis is often caused by acute inflammation of the pancreas due to obstruction of the pancreatic duct, sudden increase in pressure in the pancreatic duct and inadequate blood supply to the pancreas. The main pathogenesis is the self-digestion of the pancreas and its surrounding tissues by pancreatic enzymes, and the secondary dysfunction of a series of organs. The typical presentation is the sudden onset of severe abdominal pain, vomiting, abdominal distention, fever and increased blood and urine amylase a few hours after an episode of overeating or biliary colic.  Pancreatitis has multiple pathogenic risk factors, dominated by cholelithiasis in China, called biliary pancreatitis, while in the West it is mainly associated with excessive alcohol consumption. Cholestatic pancreatitis is caused by the common bile duct and the opening of the gland of the pancreas, which has a common bile duct abdomen. Gallstones and other causes often lead to spasm or obstruction of the common bile duct, which causes obstruction of pancreatic juice discharge. This leads to the activation of pancreatic zymogens, especially trypsinogen, which becomes a highly digestive enzyme, leading to self-digestion of the pancreas, thus causing pancreatitis.  The clinical manifestations of biliary pancreatitis are pressure pain in the right upper abdomen or under the saber (heart fossa), abdominal distension, nausea and vomiting, fever, radiating pain or fasciculation in the shoulder and back, jaundice (yellowing of the sclera of the eyes and even the skin of the whole body), muscle tension in the upper abdomen, and positive Murphy’s sign; blood tests can reveal elevated blood levels, rising blood and urine amylase and blood lipase, and ultrasound and CT tests can further confirm the diagnosis. However, serum amylase rises after 8 hours of onset and continues to fall for 3-5 days. Therefore, serum amylase may be normal at the beginning of the disease, and sometimes it needs to be retested several times to be detected. Biliary pancreatitis mostly requires emergency surgery, and those who are critically ill and cannot tolerate surgery can have nasobiliary drainage, and then undergo surgery after their general condition improves.  Because about half of the patients with acute pancreatitis have biliary tract disease, it is especially important to prevent biliary tract lesions or stones. The second is not to overeat and spill. Some patients do not have any discomfort, and in mild cases, only right upper abdominal distension or stuffy discomfort, and in severe cases, severe right upper abdominal pain, chills, high fever, scleral and skin jaundice, and even infectious shock. Further ultrasound examination usually reveals the light mass and sound shadow of stones in the gallbladder or bile duct, especially the small and multiple stones, which repeatedly discharge through the bile duct, causing spasm of the sphincter of Oddi and causing obstruction, thus inducing recurrent episodes of acute pancreatitis.