Late Phase Acute Pancreatitis: a Tailored Step-up Approach

Several interventional and surgical procedures are available to treat moderate-to-critical acute pancreatitis (AP) in its late phase. The ongoing debate on these options, together with the scarcity of reported mid-term follow-up information in the Literature, prompted the investigators to conduct a review of our surgical experience, focused on those issues. The investigators reviewed retrospectively all the patients treated for moderate-to-critical AP according to Determinant-Based Classification (DBC), in the last nine years. Patients treated conservatively or operated within 4 weeks of the onset of the pancreatitis were excluded. All the included patients were managed following a "tailored" step-up approach, and divided into four groups, according to the first interventional procedure performed: percutaneous drainage (PD), endoscopic approach (END), internal derivation (INT), and necrosectomy (NE). In-hospital and mid-term follow-up variables, including a quality-of-life assessment, were analyzed and compared.