Pancreatitis is a serious complication in the postoperative period which has been associated with a high mortality rate. The incidence of postoperative pancreatitis is uncertain, although it has been considered to be infrequent. The recent appearance of a number of reports raises some questions as to its rarity.3-5,9,15,16
The experience of the pavilion service of The New York Hospital has been reviewed to study the clinical features of postoperative pancreatitis and to assess factors that seem to contribute to a fatal outcome.
Clinical Material
Pancreatitis occurred in 52 patients who had been subjected to a variety of surgical procedures from 1939-1960. Thirty-one patients were women, and 21 were men. Their average age was 52 years.The operations that preceded the onset of pancreatitis have been listed in Table 1. The development of this complication was encountered in 40 patients after intra-abdominal procedures and in seven patients after procedures upon