Clinical details of the study patients
| No (%) | ||
| Patients | 93 | |
| Sex (M:F) | 63:30 | |
| Age (years; mean/range) | 57 (21–82) | |
| Aetiology of pancreatitis | ||
| Alcoholic | 28 (30) | |
| Biliary | 43 (46) | |
| Post-ERCP* | 5 (5) | |
| Other† | 17 (18) | |
| Predominant signs and symptoms | ||
| Sepsis‡ | 66 (71) | |
| Abdominal pain | 82 (88) | |
| Gastric obstruction/vomiting | 65 (70) | |
| Bile duct compression | 19 (20) | |
| Splenoportal thrombosis | 33 (36) | |
| Pancreatic ascites | 39 (42) | |
| Pleural effusion | 24 (26) | |
| Spontaneous perforation into gastrointestinal tract | 10 (11) | |
| Delay from onset of symptoms to first necrosectomy | ||
| <10 days | 2 (2) | |
| 10–20 days | 21 (23) | |
| 21–40 days | 33 (36) | |
| 41–60 days | 18 (19) | |
| >61 days | 19 (20) | |
| Main location of cavity | ||
| Head and head/body | 21 | |
| Body and tail | 42 | |
| Entire pancreas | 30 | |
| Cavity size (cm; mean/range) | 11.4 (4.0–25.0) | |
*Including one patient with endoscopic papillectomy.
†Including two postoperative, one due to panarteriitis nodosa, one ischaemic and two cases with no other findings but pancreas divisum.
‡As defined by one of the following: fever, C-reactive protein raised >8× upper limit of normal, bacteraemia, positive culture from cavity biopsy.
ERCP, endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography.