Clinical insights into drug-associated pancreatic injury

Purpose of review Drug-induced pancreatitis is one of the top three causes of acute pancreatitis. A drug exposure is traditionally determined to be the cause of pancreatitis only after other possible and common causes of pancreatitis have been excluded. Recent findings In this review, we challenge this traditional notion of drug-induced pancreatitis as a diagnosis of exclusion. Instead, we propose to shift the paradigm of conceptualizing what we term drug-associated pancreatic injury (DAPI); as a continuum of pancreatic injury that can be concomitant with other risk factors. The aims of this targeted review are to harness recent literature to build a foundation for conceptualizing DAPI, to highlight specific drugs associated with DAPI, and to describe a framework for future studies of DAPI. Summary Our hope is that probing and characterizing the mechanisms underlying the various types of DAPI will lead to safer use of the DAPI-inducing drugs by minimizing the adverse event of pancreatitis.
Source: Current Opinion in Gastroenterology - Category: Gastroenterology Tags: PANCREAS: Edited by Dhiraj Yadav, Asbjorn M. Drewes and Soren Olesen Source Type: research