Acute Pancreatitis: Novel Concepts in Biology and Therapy

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Acute pancreatitis is an acute inflammatory disease of the pancreatic gland which may lead to severe systemic response and still has not lost its fright for patients and clinicians. The knowledge about this disease, however, has increased considerably in the last two decades. Experimentally, on molecular and pathophysiologic bases we do understand more clearly the primary events in the initiation of acute pancreatitis and its repair. For the diagnosis of acute pancreatitis there are new diagnostic tools available and clinically it is of the utmost importance to establish a generally accepted classificaiton for the different entities of this disease. New treatment concepts have been introduced in the last years, for example the approach to biliary acute pancreatitis by endoscopic procedures and promising compounds for a specific therapy are currently evaluated, including drugs to interfere with the early stage of the disease and anti-infectives for th elate phase where infected pancreatic necrosis plays a predominant role. It has become evident that the approach to acute pancreatitis should be managed interdisciplinary to get the best treatment results. Leading authorities from around the world have contributed to this volume on all aspects of acute pancreatitis. Special attention was paid to new insight in pathophysiology and repair mechanisms, diagnosis and new treatment options in