[The influence of sonography and computer tomography on the operative treatment of acute pancreatitis (author's transl)].

Adequate stage-depending therapy of acute pancreatitis includes basic conservative treatment, intensive care measurements, and operative interventions depending on the grade of severity. Prerequisites are early diagnosis and accurate clinical assessment of the stage of severity. Beside clinical and laboratory findings, as well as the development of acute pancreatitis under conservative treatment, sonography and computed tomography allow a better prediction of the underlying morphological changes, thus leading to an exact staging of the patient's individual situation. Sonography is regarded a screening procedure of high accuracy in mild forms of acute pancreatitis. Computed tomography is the method of choice in all severe forms of this disease. The indication for immediate or delayed operative treatment of hemorrhagic-necrotising pancreatitis, heretofore depending on clinical findings solely, is supported by these new-invasive diagnostic modalities.