BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The number of times an article is cited in scientific journals reflects its impact on a specific biomedical field or specialty and reflects the impact of the authors' creativity. Our purpose was to characterize the most frequently cited articles about acute pancreatitis. METHODS: We utilized the 2010 edition of Journal Citation Reports and Social Sciences Citation Index database to determine the most frequently cited articles published after 1956. The 100 most frequently cited articles were selected. Articles were evaluated for several characteristics including number of citations, publication time, country of origin, institution, journal, publication type of article and authorship. RESULTS: The most frequently cited article received 1281 citations and the least frequently cited article received 163 citations, with a mean of 266.65 citations per article. These citation classics were published in 31 high-impact journals, led by Gastroenterology. Of the 100 articles, 56 were clinical observational studies, 20 concerned basic science and 15 were review articles. The articles originated from 16 countries, with the United States contributing 47 articles; 56 institutions produced these 100 top-cited articles, led by University of Ulm (9 publications) and New York University (9 publications); 23 persons authored 3 or more of the top-cited articles led by Imrie (10 publications). CONCLUSION: "Citation classics" about acute pancreatitis are detected in both experimental and clinical research field, which provide a historical perspective on the scientific progress and allow for recognition of important advances in this specialty.