Clinical features of pancreatitis in children: a single center retrospective study / 中国小儿急救医学

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore the clinical characteristics of children with pancreatitis, aiming to analyze the clinical differences of acute pancreatitis(AP), recurrent acute pancreatitis(RAP)and chronic pancreatitis(CP)in children.Methods:The clinical characteristics of AP, RAP, CP in children admitted to the Department of Gastroenterology at Children′s Hospital Affiliated to Capital Institute of Pediatrics from January 2015 to December 2020 were analyzed.Results:One hundred and nine cases were included in this study, including 69 cases of AP(63.3%), 22 cases of RAP(20.2%)and 18 cases of CP(16.5%). The proportion of school-age and adolescent children was 48.6% and 29.4%, and there was statistical difference between the composition of children at different ages( P<0.001). Idiopathic was the main cause of AP, RAP and CP.The other causes included biliary, viral infection, structural abnormalities, drug-induced, hypercholesterolemia and heredity.97.2%(106 cases)of the children were accompanied by abdominal pain, mainly in middle and upper abdomen(75 cases, 70.8%)and around umbilical cord(22 cases, 20.8%). The pancreatic enlargement in preschool children was mainly diffuse enlargement(11/12), while the older children with local enlargement and diffuse enlargement accounted for the same proportion, the difference was statistically significant( P=0.037). The height score of CP children was lower than the overall average of the population(0 score), and lower than those of AP and RAP children, with statistically significant difference[-0.65(-1.57, 0.25) vs.0.36(-1.03, 1.05) and -0.09(-0.30, 0.41), H=6.021, P=0.044]. Eight (11.6%) cases with AP progressed to RAP, and six (8.7%) cases with AP progressed to CP. Conclusion:Pancreatitis tends to occur in school-age and adolescent children, and idiopathic is the first cause of all types of pancreatitis.AP, RAP, and CP share common features of pancreatitis in terms of etiology composition and clinical manifestations.Compared with AP and RAP, CP is more likely to affect the growth and development of children.Some children with AP could progress to RAP or CP, so we should pay more attention to the etiological investigation of AP and eliminate the etiological factors in time to avoid the disease progression.