Korean J Gastroenterol.  1998 Aug;32(2):230-235.

Clinical Significance of Pleural Effusion in Patients with Aeute Pancreatitis

• Ryu HS
• Kim KH
• Lee HS
• Kim SJ
• Kim CD
• Hyun JH

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The presence of pleural effusion has been proposed as a marker for severe pancreatitis. There is a controversy about whether pleural effusion in acute pancreatitis is associated with severity of the disease. The aim of this study was to clarify the association between pleural effusion and severity in patients with acute pancreatitis.
METHODS
We retrospectively evaluated 216 patients (M:137, F:77) with acute pancreatitis. The diagnosis of acute pancreatitis was based on the typical signs and symptoms, enzyme elevation, and radiological findings, For grading of the severity, APACHE II and Ranson score at admission were used. The patients were subdivided into four etiological groups: alcohol, gallstone, idiopathic and others.
RESULTS
Pleural effusion was observed in 46 (21.3%) out of 216 patients with pancreatitis. Alcohol was the most common etiology (41.3%), followed by gallstones (32.6%), idiopathic (17.4%) and others (8.7%). The location of pleural effusion was not correlated with severity of pancreatitis. The rate of high ransor score (>3) in the patients with pleural effusion was significantly higher than that in the patients without pleural effusion. However, there was no significant difference between the patients with and without pleural effusion when APACHE II score was applied. The mortality was 4.7% in patients with pleural effusion and 4,4% in patients without pleural effusion.
CONCLUSIONS
Pleural effusion is considered as a useful predictor of severity and a negative parameter for the course of the acute pancreatitis.

Keyword

Pleural effusion; Severity; Acute pancreatitis

MeSH Terms

APACHE
Diagnosis
Gallstones
Humans
Mortality
Pancreatitis*
Pleural Effusion*
Retrospective Studies