[Prognosis and surgical indications in acute pancreatitis. Contribution of abdominal x-ray computed tomography].

The authors have retrospectively studied 17 patients with acute pancreatitis to see if computed tomography (CT) findings were correlated with the clinical type of acute pancreatitis. This study permit to say that a normal CT scan is possible with an edematous pancreatitis. There is no necrotizing pancreatitis with normal CT scan. But, in 11 CT scan with severe appearance, 6 patients had an edematous pancreatitis of good prognosis. Several explanations are given, but the important thing is the lack of correlation that make CT scan of a bad prognosis value. Any way, CT scan is still the best examination for diagnosis of acute pancreatitis.