Methemalbumin and Pancreatitis: A Warning

Excerpt

To the editor: Most acute pancreatitis is of the edematous type and has a low mortality of about 5%. In contrast, the hemorrhagic type is uncommon, accounting for about 15% of acute pancreatitis, but with a high mortality of between 50% and 90%. Such statistics often lull the physician into the expectancy of benignity and confound results of therapeutic clinical trials. They should instead make it a high priority to distinguish the two types in a given patient. Neither clinical severity nor any laboratory test can do this infallibly. Shock, hypocalcemia, prolonged hyperenzymemia, skin changes, and thromboembolic phenomena may occur