Parenteral nutrition in the treatment of acute pancreatitis: effect on complications and mortality.

Clinical characteristics of 46 cases of acute pancreatitis treated with total parenteral nutrition were examined. Hyperalimentation may be used in these severely ill patients with minimal technical or metabolic morbidity. This method of nutritional support can maintain patients with nonfunctional gastrointestinal tracts for several months. Catheter-related sepsis was more common than expected early in the course of acute pancreatitis but caused minimal morbidity. The incidence of catheter-related sepsis late in disease was minor. Hyperalimentation had little if any effect on the pathophysiology of acute pancreatitis as judged by the overall mortality and the incidence and severity of the complications of acute respiratory failure and acute renal failure. It is not clear that parenteral hyperalimentation alters the course of acute pancreatitis but it is a useful adjunct for nutritional support in this illness.