This site is intended for healthcare professionals

Go to /sign-in page

You can view 5 more pages before signing in

Aetiology

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

Alcohol accounts for up to 80% of all cases of chronic pancreatitis. Other causes include:

  • congenital - pancreas divisum; annular pancreas
  • hereditary - sometimes with cyclical neutropenia
  • cystic fibrosis - in young adults
  • hypercalcaemia
  • hyperlipidaemia
  • obstruction of the pancreatic duct can cause chronic pancreatitis.
    • mechanical or structural changes of the pancreatic - duct sphincter, pseudocysts, post - traumatic ductal strictures, periampullary tumours.
    • gallstones is an uncommon cause.
    • a pancreas divisum is a very rare cause.
  • idiopathic - 30 - 40% of patients; tend to cluster in two groups - a younger group (with peak incidence of 15 - 30 years of age) and an older group (peak of 50 - 70 years)
  • autoimmune disease, in particular IgG4 disease

Related pages

Create an account to add page annotations

Annotations allow you to add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation. E.g. a website or number. This information will always show when you visit this page.