Outpatient Versus Inpatient Management of Mild Acute Pancreatitis

Acute pancreatitis is a sudden inflammation of the pancreas that causes severe abdominal pain. Most cases are mild and get better within a few days with basic supportive treatment such as fluids and pain relief. Currently, all patients with acute pancreatitis are admitted to hospital, even those with a very low risk of complications. This study will test whether patients with mild acute pancreatitis can be safely sent home with close follow-up (telephone calls on days 1, 2, and 3 after discharge and a clinic visit on day 4) instead of staying in hospital. Patients will be randomly assigned to either home management or standard hospitalization. We will compare the rate of treatment failure at 30 days between the two groups. We expect that home management will be as safe as hospitalization, while being more convenient for patients and less costly for the health system.