Validation of the New Severity Assessment Criteria for Acute Pancreatitis

Abstract

The Japanese criteria for the severity assessment of acute pancreatitis were revised. To validate the new severity assessment criteria (new criteria) from the aspect of the clinical course, we categorized patients into 4 groups: patients considered severe by both the heretofore used criteria (previous criteria) and the new criteria, severe group; patients considered severe only by the previous criteria, previous severe group; patients considered severe only by the new criteria, new severe group; and patients considered not severe by both the previous and new criteria, mild group. In each group, the clinical outcomes such as the days to normalization of the serum C-reactive protein, the days to resumption of oral diet, and total hospital stay were investigated. As a result, while no significant differences were observed in the clinical outcomes between the previous severe group and mild group, there were significant differences between the previous severe group and severe group. On the other hand, while no significant differences were observed in the clinical outcomes between the new severe group and severe group, there were significant differences between the new severe group and mild group. These results suggest that the new criteria are pertinent for assessing the severity of acute pancreatitis from the aspect of the clinical course compared with the previous criteria.