Pancreatitis — the calling card of gland under the stomach & over the gut

The fish-shaped organ, with a head, body and tail — the pancreas — lies cradled between the loops of the small intestine kissing the inferior of the stomach. An often unheard-of entity, it shot to fame when diabetes became rampant because insulin is manufactured in the pancreas.

- Dr Hemant Thacker

The gland plays a dual role — providing exocrine function (secreting digestive pancreatic juice which it pours out through the pancreatic duct into the small gut) to aid digestion and secreting insulin and glucagon (hormones which regulate glucose metabolism) into the bloodstream.

While it makes its presence subtly felt in the impoverished diabetic, it really announces itself with acute pancreatitis, where the agony-stricken patient needs to be necessarily hospitalised and given meticulous treatment in most cases. While there are many postulates to the cause, acute pancreatitis is usually viral if not unknown in aetiology. Gallstones or infected sludge blocking the pancreatic duct, binge drinking alcohol or even acute gastritis are known to be the other causes.