[1] According to the Balthazar and Ranson's radiographic staging criteria, patients with a normal pancreas, an enlargement that is focal or diffuse, mild peripancreatic inflammations or a single collection of fluid (pseudocyst) have less than 2% chances of developing an abscess.
Patients with pancreatic abscesses may experience abdominal pain, chills and fever or the inability to eat.
[1] Other causes include gall stones or alcohol consumption and, in rare cases, drugs, blunt trauma[3] and following extension abscess from nearby structures.
Abdominal CT scans, MRIs and ultrasounds are helpful in providing clear images of the inside of the abdomen and successfully used in the diagnosing process.
Also, it is recommended that patients who have a prolonged clinical response are tested repeatedly as a prevention method to avoid the development of an abscess that may rupture.
Pancreatic abscesses are more likely to host enteric organisms and pathogens such as E. coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus mirabilis, and Streptococcus species.
Patients are at risk of sepsis and multiple organ failure and in cases in which the infected abscess is not removed through surgery, the mortality rate can reach 100%.