The calendar and acute pancreatitis.

To find out whether a seasonal pattern exists for acute pancreatitis, the weekday and month of admission were retrospectively checked for 263 patients admitted to our hospital from 1987 to 1995 with their first attack of this disease. Etiology was biliary in 105 (40%), alcoholic in 84 (32%), unknown in 54 (21%), and presumed to be other in 20 (7%) patients. Forty-two (16%) patients had necrotizing acute pancreatitis. There was no significant correlation between admission and a specific month or weekday. Furthermore, there was no significant correlation between the etiology or onset of symptoms and a specific weekday. In contrast to other gastroenterological diseases such as peptic ulcer and inflammatory bowel disease, there is no seasonal or weekly pattern for acute pancreatitis.