How can pancreatitis be treated

Read More. Food Poisoning. Acute Bronchitis. Eustachian Tube Dysfunction. Bursitis of the Hip. Abnormal Uterine Bleeding. High Blood Pressure. Home Diseases and Conditions Pancreatitis. Table of Contents. What is pancreatitis? There are 2 types of pancreatitis: Acute — only lasts a few days Chronic — lasts a long time up to a few years Both types are serious and can cause complications.

Symptoms of pancreatitis The symptoms of acute pancreatitis include: Pain in your upper abdomen that spreads to your back Nausea Vomiting Fever Rapid heart rate People who have chronic pancreatitis may also experience abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting. What causes pancreatitis? There are a number of factors that can cause pancreatitis.

How is pancreatitis diagnosed? Can pancreatitis be prevented or avoided? These include: Maintain a healthy lifestyle or lose weight, if needed. By keeping your body at a healthy weight, you can make your pancreas work better and reduce some risk factors for pancreatitis. These include gallstones, obesity, and diabetes. Eat a balanced, low-fat diet and exercise regularly. Avoid alcohol. Heavy alcohol use is one of the leading causes of both acute and chronic pancreatitis.

Talk to your doctor if you need help to stop drinking. Smoking is a risk factor for pancreatitis. Your risk goes up even more if you smoke and drink alcohol. Talk to your doctor if you need help to stop smoking.

Pancreatitis treatment If you have acute pancreatitis, you may need to stay in the hospital for a few days. This treatment would depend on the cause of the pancreatitis but could include: Gallbladder removal. If you have gallstones, you may need to have your gallbladder removed. Other procedures. If you have an abscess or pseudocyst that is infected, your doctor may need to drain it.

He or she can remove damaged tissue from your pancreas if that is needed. There is also a surgery performed on those whose pain will not respond to treatment. During this procedure, known as autologous islet cell transplantation, the entire pancreas is removed and the insulin-making cells of the pancreas are reinserted into the liver with a catheter.

Everything to Know if You Have Diabetes. About 20 percent of pancreatitis cases are severe, meaning they result in multiple organ failure that doesn't naturally subside within 48 hours. People with severe pancreatitis may need to be transferred to an intensive care unit for an extended treatment, which could last more than a week.

Due to vomiting, sweating, and reduced consumption of food and liquids, severe pancreatitis frequently causes hypovolemia — a decreased volume of blood circulating in the body. One of the most common complications of severe pancreatitis is an infection of necrotic tissue in the pancreas, or tissue that has died due to a lack of blood supply. These infections are treated with antibiotics.

The dead or damaged tissue may need to be removed surgically. While some research suggested there may be benefits, the consensus among experts is that probiotics do not appear to reduce the risk of infectious complications in severe pancreatitis. People with severe pancreatitis may require several weeks of nasogastric feeding, in which a feeding tube carries food to the stomach through the nose. Antibiotics may also be necessary if an extra-pancreatic outside of the pancreas infection has developed.

Up to one-third of people with pancreatitis develop an extra-pancreatic infection, according to a report published in in the journal Pancreatology. Gallstones are the number one cause of pancreatitis. For the majority of these cases, the gallstones are small and don't remain in the bile duct or pancreatic duct for long.

But sometimes the obstruction doesn't go away without treatment, and doctors need to remove it using a procedure called endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography ERCP.

If gallstones are found in the gallbladder , the gallbladder may need to be removed via surgery to prevent the recurrence of pancreatitis after treatment. In addition to hospital treatment, the following lifestyle changes are recommended to help aid recovery and possibly prevent pancreatitis:. There is no one specific pancreatic diet that can treat chronic pancreatitis.

But there are some general rules for nutrition if you have the condition. The National Institutes of Health says that pancreatitis patients should consume no more than 30 grams of fat a day. By subscribing you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

References Janisch N and Gardner T. Advances in Management of Acute Pancreatitis. Gastroenterology Clinics of North America. March Fluid Resuscitation in Acute Pancreatitis.

World Journal of Gastroenterology. December Treatment for chronic pancreatitis may help relieve pain, improve how well the pancreas works, and manage complications. Medicines and vitamins. Your doctor may give you enzyme pills to help with digestion, or vitamins A, D, E, and K if you have malabsorption. He or she may also give you vitamin B shots if you need them.

Treatment for diabetes. Chronic pancreatitis may cause diabetes. If you get diabetes, your doctor and health care team will work with you to create an eating plan and a routine of medicine, blood glucose monitoring , and regular checkups. Your doctor may recommend surgery to relieve pressure or blockage in your pancreatic duct, or to remove a damaged or infected part of your pancreas. Surgery is done in a hospital, where you may have to stay a few days.

In patients who do not get better with other treatments, surgeons may perform surgery to remove your whole pancreas, followed by islet auto-transplantation. Islets are groups of cells in your pancreas that make hormones , including insulin. After removing your pancreas, doctors will take islets from your pancreas and transplant them into your liver. The islets will begin to make hormones and release them into your bloodstream.

Your doctor may suggest a nerve block, which is a shot of numbing medicine through your skin and directly into nerves that carry the pain message from your pancreas. If you have stones blocking your pancreatic duct, your doctor may use a procedure to break up and remove the stones.

Health care professionals strongly advise people with pancreatitis to stop drinking alcohol, even if your pancreatitis is mild or in the early stages. Continuing to drink alcohol when you have acute pancreatitis can lead to.