Eating a lot of greasy food, 14-year-old boy has severe necrotizing pancreatitis, urgent removal of pancreatic cyst

The City Children’s Hospital (HCMC) said that the unit has been treating a male patient TT (14 years old, living in Soc Trang) for the past 5 months. Before that, T. was transferred to the emergency room by the local hospital with a diagnosis of severe necrotizing pancreatitis.

Through exploiting information from the family, it is known that before being admitted to the hospital, the patient ate greasy dishes during Tet. Then T. had abdominal pain, the condition was increasing with vomiting, so the family took him to the emergency hospital.

At the City Children’s Hospital (HCMC), T. vomited green bile in a critical condition, and quickly fell into systemic toxic shock with abdominal pain and intestinal infection. Doctors diagnosed the patient with severe necrotizing pancreatitis, pancreatic pseudocyst, and systemic toxic shock. Soon after, T. underwent emergency pancreatectomy, correcting the infection completely.

Ingestion of a lot of fat causes the pancreas to be overloaded, leading to damage to pancreatic cells due to the destruction of pancreatic enzymes.

The patient was placed a jejunal catheter to introduce powder and crushed nutrients to support eating. For more than 5 months in the hospital for intensive treatment at the ICU, T.’s health is gradually stabilizing, his spirit is much more optimistic.

According to Dr. Nguyen Cat Phuong Vu, Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit, acute pancreatitis in children is a big concern for parents. Children who are not diagnosed early and treated promptly will face many dangerous complications.

Acute pancreatitis is a rare disease in children, so it is often overlooked. The disease often has atypical symptoms, easy to confuse with other gastrointestinal diseases, especially stomach pain. If diagnosed and treated late, the patient may experience complications such as hypotension, bleeding, pancreatic infection, functional intestinal paralysis, cardiovascular collapse, impaired kidney function… especially patients with bleeding in the pancreas, the risk of death within the first days of illness.

Acute pancreatitis in children is treated by inserting a tube into the stomach to drain the fluid. Pediatric patients will have to fast, receive intravenous feeding or put a special tube through the stomach for the entire time of treatment. After that, the patient will be rehydrated, possibly requiring antibiotics if the disease is severe. A child’s hospital stay will be very long, possibly several months.

Therefore, doctors recommend that children with acute pancreatitis often have unusual abdominal symptoms, especially after large meals rich in protein and fat. Abdominal pain can be continuous or intermittent, worse after eating. Accompanied by symptoms of nausea, vomiting, the patient may vomit bile, gastric juice or blood. Abdominal distention and bowel obstruction are also warning signs of acute pancreatitis. As soon as the child encounters the above symptoms, it is necessary to take the child to a medical facility for timely diagnosis and treatment, to avoid serious complications later.

According to P. Phương