Chronic pancreatitis as a cause of gastrointestinal bleeding.

Chronic pancreatitis is an infrequently considered cause of gastrointestinal bleeding. Four cases are described who presented to a surgical unit in a year. One patient bled down the main pancreatic duct from a splenic artery pseudoaneurysm, one had a fatal haemorrhage from a superior mesenteric artery aneurysm which ruptured into the duodenum, and two were considered to have bled from vessels in the stomach or colon which were involved in the peripancreatic inflammatory tissues. The difficulties in diagnosing these patients are described and the report emphasises that the diagnosis should be considered in obscure cases of gastrointestinal bleeding especially where there is a history of alcohol abuse and left upper quadrant or epigastric pain.