Early signs of pancreatitis, do you have these 6 symptoms?

Pancreatitis is extremely harmful to the body. Early patients will experience adverse reactions such as abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. About 20% of patients will develop jaundice of varying degrees 1 to 2 days after the onset of the disease, accompanied by moderate fever symptoms between 38-39 degrees.

1: Abdominal distension. In severe cases, it is caused by the irritation of intraperitoneal exudate and retroperitoneal bleeding. Paralytic intestinal obstruction causes intestinal gas and fluid accumulation, causing abdominal distension.

2: Nausea and vomiting . Two-thirds of patients have this symptom. The attacks are frequent and reflexive in the early stages. The contents of the vomiting are food and bile. The late stage is caused by paralytic ileus, and the vomitus is fecal. If a person vomits ascaris, it is usually pancreatitis complicated by biliary ascariasis. Vomiting in patients with alcoholic pancreatitis often occurs during abdominal pain, while vomiting in patients with biliary pancreatitis often occurs after abdominal pain occurs.

3: Jaundice . About 20% of patients develop varying degrees of jaundice 1 to 2 days after the onset of the disease. The possible reasons are the coexistence of bile duct stones, causing bile duct obstruction, or the enlarged pancreatic head compressing the lower end of the common bile duct or damaged liver function causing jaundice. The more severe the jaundice, the more serious the condition and the poorer the prognosis.

4: Fever, mostly moderate fever: between 38° and 39°C, usually gradually decreasing after 3 to 5 days. However, in severe cases, the temperature may persist for several days, indicating pancreatic infection or abscess formation, and symptoms of poisoning may appear. In severe cases, the body temperature may not rise. When combined with cholangitis, there may be chills and high fever.

5: Hand and foot cramps are caused by low blood calcium. It is the action of lipase that enters the abdominal cavity, which digests the adipose tissue on the greater omentum and peritoneum and breaks it down into glycerol and fatty acids. The latter combines with calcium to form insoluble fatty acid calcium, thus causing a decrease in serum calcium. If the serum calcium is less than 1.98 mmol/L (8 mg%), it indicates a serious condition and a poor prognosis.

6: Shock , which is more common in acute hemorrhagic necrotizing pancreatitis. It is caused by massive exudate and bleeding in the peritoneal cavity and retroperitoneum, fluid accumulation in the intestinal cavity due to intestinal paralysis, and vomiting leading to fluid loss, causing hypovolemic shock. In addition, a large amount of protein decomposition products are absorbed, leading to toxic shock. The main symptoms are irritability, cold sweat, thirst, cold limbs, thin pulse, shallow and rapid breathing, low blood pressure, and oliguria. In severe cases, cyanosis, breathing difficulties, delirium, coma, rapid pulse, undetectable blood pressure, anuria, renal failure, etc. may occur.

In daily life, patients with pancreatitis must remember not to drink alcohol or eat foods with high fat content. Foods with too high fat content are difficult to digest and can promote the secretion of bile, which activates the digestive enzymes in the pancreas and can worsen the condition. Therefore, foods high in fat, such as fatty meat, peanuts, sesame seeds, puff pastry, fried foods, etc. should be prohibited. Patients should eat nutritious foods such as fish, lean meat, protein, tofu, etc. Carbohydrates such as rice and noodles, and fresh vegetables should be eaten more appropriately, but they should not eat too much at each meal. It is enough to eat until they are 70% to 80% full.