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Medicina
Special Issues
Recent Advances in Acute Pancreatitis: Diagnosis, Treatment, and Future Perspectives
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Recent Advances in Acute Pancreatitis: Diagnosis, Treatment, and Future Perspectives

A special issue of Medicina (ISSN 1648-9144). This special issue belongs to the section "Gastroenterology & Hepatology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 October 2026 | Viewed by 456

Editors

Dr. Manuela Mastronardi

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Guest Editor
Department of Medicine, Surgery and Health Sciences, University of Trieste, 34129 Trieste, Italy
Interests: emergency; trauma; minimally invasive surgery
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Alan Biloslavo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of General Surgery, Cattinara University Hospital, 34149 Trieste, Italy
Interests: emergency; trauma; minimally invasive surgery
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Antonio La Greca

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Medical and Surgical Science, Emergency and Trauma Unit, Fondazione Policlinico A. Gemelli IRCCS, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 00168 Rome, Italy
Interests: emergency surgery; trauma; vascular access; abdominal wall; negative pressure
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Over recent decades, the management of acute pancreatitis has undergone substantial changes. Historically, treatment focused primarily on supportive care and open surgical interventions for complications such as pancreatic necrosis. However, improvements in imaging modalities, endoscopic techniques, and critical care have significantly transformed the therapeutic landscape.

The development of minimally invasive approaches, including endoscopic and percutaneous drainage and step-up strategies, has reduced the need for open surgery and improved patient outcomes. In parallel, advances in molecular research and biomarker discovery have enhanced our understanding of disease mechanisms and risk prediction.

Nevertheless, several aspects of acute pancreatitis management remain controversial, including early diagnostic strategies, the optimal timing of interventions, the role of the microbiota, and the integration of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence into clinical practice.

This Special Issue will provide an up-to-date and comprehensive overview of emerging concepts and innovations in acute pancreatitis. It will bring together multidisciplinary research that improves our understanding of the disease and contributes to more effective diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic strategies.

This Special Issue will focus on novel diagnostic tools, minimally invasive therapeutic approaches, molecular mechanisms, and technological innovations to enhance clinical decision-making and patient outcomes. 

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Molecular mechanisms and biomarkers in acute pancreatitis;
  • Advances in imaging techniques for early diagnosis and disease monitoring;
  • Endoscopic and minimally invasive approaches in the management of pancreatic complications;
  • Artificial intelligence and machine learning for severity prediction and clinical decision support;
  • Role of the gut microbiota and microbiome modulation in pancreatitis;
  • Risk stratification models and predictive scores;
  • Management of pancreatic necrosis and infected collections;
  • Prevention and treatment of recurrent pancreatitis;
  • Long-term outcomes and complications of acute pancreatitis;
  • Multidisciplinary and personalized approaches to patient management.

For this Special Issue, we welcome submissions including the following:

  • Original research articles;
  • Clinical studies and observational studies;
  • Systematic reviews and meta-analyses;
  • Narrative reviews on emerging diagnostic and therapeutic strategies;
  • Translational research related to the molecular mechanisms behind pancreatitis;
  • Studies exploring innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence or advanced imaging.

Multidisciplinary contributions from surgeons, gastroenterologists, radiologists, intensivists, and researchers in translational medicine are strongly encouraged. 

Dr. Manuela Mastronardi
Dr. Alan Biloslavo
Dr. Antonio La Greca
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Medicina is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • acute pancreatitis
  • minimally invasive management
  • biomarkers
  • artificial intelligence

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

26 pages, 3416 KB  
Article
New Perspectives in the Assessment of Severity Scoring in Acute Pancreatitis: Development and Internal Validation of a Novel Bedside Prognostic Score (ProbScore2)
by Zsombor Szász, Imola Török and Simona Maria Bățagă
Medicina 2026, 62(9), 1630; https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina62091630 - 25 Aug 2026
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Existing severity scores for acute pancreatitis (AP), such as the Ranson, Glasgow-Imrie, APACHE II, BISAP, Balthazar scores, are limited by complexity, delayed availability, or insufficient discriminative accuracy. We aimed to develop a new prognostic score using parameters available at admission [...] Read more.
Background and Objectives: Existing severity scores for acute pancreatitis (AP), such as the Ranson, Glasgow-Imrie, APACHE II, BISAP, Balthazar scores, are limited by complexity, delayed availability, or insufficient discriminative accuracy. We aimed to develop a new prognostic score using parameters available at admission in any primary or regional care setting, suitable for early risk stratification and clinical decision-making in AP. Materials and Methods: We conducted a retrospective observational study of 194 patients admitted with acute pancreatitis, classified as mild (MILD, n = 59), moderately severe (n = 82) and severe (n= 53) course, according to the Revised Atlanta Classification. Candidate predictors—including demographic, clinical, inflammatory, nutritional, and radiological variables—were screened using univariable analysis, and independent predictors were identified by backward stepwise logistic regression. Discriminative performance was assessed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis and compared with six established severity scores (Ranson, Glasgow-Imrie, Balthazar, CTSI, BISAP, and HAPS). APACHE II was not included in this comparison because some of its required physiological variables were not consistently available outside the intensive care unit. Results: MODSEV (moderately severe/severe) patients showed significantly higher inflammatory, nutritional, and metabolic derangement at admission than MILD patients. Six variables—admission white blood cell count, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), pleural effusion, admission blood glucose level, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and serum albumin—were retained in the final logistic regression model (ProbScore2), which demonstrated excellent discriminative ability (AUC = 0.873; 95% CI: 0.819–0.927), showing, within this retrospective cohort, a numerically higher AUC than the Glasgow-Imrie (AUC = 0.832), CTSI (0.775), Balthazar (0.758), BISAP (0.725), Ranson (0.676) and HAPS (0.574). A simplified, unweighted 0–6 point bedside version of the score retained most of this discriminative ability (AUC = 0.852), with an optimal cut-off of ≥3 points yielding a sensitivity of 77.0% and a specificity of 79.7%. Conclusions: ProbScore2, a novel six-variable prognostic score, demonstrated excellent discriminative performance for the early identification of moderately severe/severe acute pancreatitis, with a numerically higher AUC than established severity scoring systems evaluated within this same retrospective, single-center cohort (excluding APACHE II, which could not be calculated for all patients). These comparative findings require confirmation through prospective external validation before any conclusions about generalizable superiority can be drawn. Five of the six components are derived from routine admission blood tests, and the sixth (pleural effusion) requires only a plain chest radiograph rather than cross-sectional imaging. The score and its simplified bedside adaptation can therefore be calculated within hours of admission using resources available even in hospitals without intensive care or advanced, CT-based imaging capabilities. ProbScore2 is not yet ready for routine clinical use; prospective external validation in independent, multicenter cohorts is required before clinical implementation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Acute Pancreatitis: Diagnosis, Treatment, and Future Perspectives)
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