Biography
Biography: Biljana Vuletić
Abstract
Acute pancreatitis is an urgent pediatric problem which spontaneously disappears in most cases, although a severe form of the disease can develop in 10-30% of cases, known as severe acute pancreatitis (SAP). Publications from the last few decades have reported an increase in the incidence of pancreatitis among children. This can suggest a real increase in the incidence of pediatric pancreatitis or may indicate other issues such as increased attention to this disease which is, as previously thought, extremely rare in childhood. As the prevalence of pancreatitis in the adult population ranges between 6 and 45/100000 per year and two pediatric multi-institutional studies showed an incidence of 3.6 and 13.2 cases per 100,000 children, pancreatitis is no longer a rare disease in pediatric practice. In accordance with these relevant data and the fact that, unlike the extensive available literature on pancreatitis in adult population, the aetiology and history of pediatric pancreatitis is not clear enough and there are no evidence-based guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of the disease or prognostic algorithms, the consortium named the International Study Group of Pediatric Pancreatitis: In Search for a Cure (INSPIRE) was established in 2010. The most important task of this group of pediatric gastroenterologists and associates was to define the occurrence of pancreatitis in childhood and then, through the analysis of demographic characteristics, clinical pictures and diagnostic procedures, to develop a therapeutic strategy in order to prevent the recurrence of acute pancreatitis and its progression in its chronic form.