Understanding of the 2013 International Association of Pancreatology/American Pancreatic Association evidence based guidelines for the management of acute pancreatitis

Acute pancreatitis is one of the most common acute abdominal disease requiring acute hospitalization worldwide. As severe acute pancreatitis associated with mortality up to 30%, rational diagnosis and management requires up to date evidence based treatment guidelines. The “Guidelines for the surgical management of acute pancreatitis” composed by the International Association of Pancreatology (IAP) was published in 2002, since then there have been substantial improvements in the management of acute pancreatitis. The collaboration of the IAP and the American Pancreatic Association (APA) was undertaken to revise these guidelines using an evidence based approach in 2013 and published their new guidelines “2013 IAP/APA evidence based guidelines for the management of acute pancreatitis” few months ago. This paper presented the understandings of this new guidelines and compared with related guidelines abroad.