No account of the complications of acute pancreatitis (Gut 2005;54:426–36) would be complete without mention of diabetic ketoacidosis as an association, which is either fortuitous or one which exists as a complication in its own right. Recognition of this association has been inhibited by the complicated relationship between diabetic ketoacidosis, acute abdominal pain, and hyperamylassaemia, notwithstanding the fact that, as long ago as 1961, a …