Life saving abdominal decompression in a patient with severe acute pancreatitis.

Severe acute pancreatitis can be complicated early in its course by life threatening conditions such as abdominal compartment syndrome. We report a patient who needed abdominal decompression three days after admission to the intensive care unit because of intra-abdominal hypertension and end stage organ dysfunction. The clinical course was protracted, but the patient survived and was discharged from the hospital.