NICE Guidelines on Pancreatitis Diagnosis and Management

Pancreatitis is an important condition for Guts UK, and a key area of research for our organisation. NICE (The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) is a non-departmental public body responsible for providing national guidance and advice to improve health and social care.

Have Your Say

NICE is currently developing new guidelines for the diagnosis and management of pancreatitis as part of an ongoing consultation with relevant stakeholders. Guts UK is a stakeholder and we are keen to collect comments on the draft guidelines, as well as any other feedback, from people affected by pancreatitis, including patients, their families and their carers.

NICE accepts comments directly from individuals but it encourages individuals to submit their comments through a registered stakeholder organisation wherever possible. Find out how to comment on these guidelines or contact Guts UK at [email protected] to pass on your comments to us, or for any queries.

The consultation closes on 25 April 2018 at 5.00pm. Expected publication of the guidelines is the 5th of September 2018.

Pancreatitis

Adding a powerful patient voice, Guts UK supporters Kirsty Donaldson and Grace Chatten recently spoke at the GBIHPBA annual meeting, a conference for liver, pancreas and bile duct surgeons. You can read Kirsty’s story about living with chronic pancreatitis here.

Pancreatitis is an inflammation of the pancreas, a large gland found behind the stomach. The pancreas produces digestive juices (enzymes that break down food into nutrients) and hormones such as insulin, the molecule responsible for controlling blood sugar levels. Pancreatitis can be acute or chronic. In acute pancreatitis the inflammation flares up suddenly, causing some of the digestive juices to damage the pancreas and sometimes the tissues around it. In chronic pancreatitis, ongoing inflammation causes scarring, thickening, and other damage to the pancreas. This can lead to problems with the digestion of food and to diabetes. Both acute and chronic pancreatitis can be extremely painful.

Learn more about acute and chronic pancreatitis.