What are the common causes of acute pancreatitis?

When acute pancreatitis occurs, we need to pay attention to understand the causes. The most common ones are some bad living habits in life, such as excessive drinking, overeating, and hyperlipidemia, which may all lead to acute pancreatitis.

1. Excessive drinking Excessive drinking is the main cause of acute pancreatitis in American cities. This situation is not uncommon in our country. Excessive drinking is closely related to the incidence of acute pancreatitis.

2. Overeating, especially overeating of high-protein, high-fat foods, combined with drinking, can stimulate excessive secretion of pancreatic juice. When accompanied by partial obstruction of the pancreatic duct, acute pancreatitis may occur.

3. Hyperlipidemia is also a cause of acute pancreatitis: hyperlipidemia can be secondary to nephritis, castration and the use of exogenous estrogen, as well as hereditary hyperlipidemia (type I and type V).

4. Hypercalcemia often occurs in patients with hyperparathyroidism. Calcium can induce the activation of trypsinogen and cause the pancreas to destroy itself; high calcium can produce pancreatic duct stones and cause pancreatic duct obstruction; high calcium can also stimulate increased pancreatic juice secretion. It is absorbed into the blood through the peritoneum, causing an increase in blood amylase and lipase; a large amount of pancreatic enzymes entering the blood can cause damage to organs such as the liver, kidneys, heart, and brain, causing multiple organ dysfunction syndrome.

5. Obstructive factors are more common in Europe, Asia and China. The most common cause of obstruction is gallstones. The causes of obstruction of the ampulla of Vater include: gallstones passing through or being stuck in the ampulla of Vater, biliary ascariasis, edema of the duodenal papilla, spasm of the ampulla sphincter, stenosis of the ampulla, etc.; obstruction of the common bile-pancreatic pathway causes bile reflux into the pancreatic duct, causing bile-induced pancreatic parenchymal damage. Simple pancreatic duct obstruction is sufficient to cause pancreatic damage.