Alcoholic pancreatitis is a frequent visitor during heavy festivals.
A hearty feast always accompanies holidays and family celebrations of Volgograd residents.
Not only delicious food is served on the table, but also alcohol. Karina Tyrina, a gastroenterologist at city clinic No. Alcoholic pancreatitis refers to the reaction of the pancreas to drinking alcohol. It happens that an attack happens once and does not happen again, but it happens that alcoholic pancreatitis becomes a chronic disease.
“Along with alcohol, pancreatitis can also be caused by gallstones, infections, drugs, congenital malformations or trauma to the pancreas,” said Dr. Tyrina. – Among the main symptoms is severe, growing pain in the epigastric region, which does not go away after eating, or after stool, or from taking antispasmodics. As well as fever, nausea, vomiting, hiccups, rapid pulse, bloating, yellowness of the skin and whites of the eyes.
There are cases when the pain at first is mild and bearable, but within a few days it does not go away, but becomes stronger. The correct action is to call an ambulance. In the hospital, tests are taken from the patient, the results of which show that amylase or lipase is elevated many times over normal values, and the ultrasound shows a swollen head of the pancreas, blurred contours of the organ, or fluid in the abdominal cavity. and omental bursa.
Such a severe acute condition is treated in the surgical department or the intensive care unit using IVs, enzyme therapy and other methods. With proper treatment, this type of pancreatitis can be cured without serious complications in the body.
Chronic pancreatitis can develop in a patient if he drinks 200 or more grams of strong alcoholic beverages per day for many years. It is not completely curable. Over time, the pancreatic tissue becomes fibrous, and calcifications – stones in the pancreas – are formed. All this causes digestive problems and gradual decline of the organ.
“The pancreas does not recover, that is, it is no longer what it was before the development of chronic pancreatitis,” said doctor Tyrina. – When the cells of the pancreas die, a person develops a lack of external secretion of the organ. After each meal, diarrhea occurs and progresses to malabsorption syndrome, where a person loses weight without any effort.
The treatment is, first of all, stopping alcohol, following a split diet, excluding fried, fatty, dry, smoked, and spicy foods from the diet.
Regarding drug therapy, the doctor always chooses the drugs individually. But first of all, the patient is prescribed analgesics or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, because before starting serious treatment it is necessary to relieve the inflammation.