Acute Pancreatitis in Children

The original clinical classification of pancreatic inflammation, established at the Marseilles symposium in 1963, comprised acute pancreatitis, relapsing acute, chronic relapsing and chronic pancreatits (1) . Acute pancreatitis was characterized by clinical and pathologic reversibility, whereas chronic pancreatitis was characterized by permanent morphologic changes in the pancreas. Neither etiology nor severity was included in the classification, and it often proved difficult to clinically distinguish between the relapsing acute and chronic relapsing categories. The classification was redefined at the Second International Symposium in Marsielle in 1984. Both these intermedicate categories were eliminated and pancreatitis was as acute or chronic pancreatitis (2)