Letters To The Editor
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World J Gastroenterol. Sep 21, 2010; 16(35): 4497-4498
Published online Sep 21, 2010. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v16.i35.4497
Walled-off pancreatic necrosis: Wishing our pancreatitis nomenclature was correct
Arkadiusz Peter Wysocki
Arkadiusz Peter Wysocki, Department of General Surgery, Logan Hospital, PO Box 4096, Loganholme DC, Queensland 4129, Australia
Author contributions: Wysocki AP wrote this paper.
Correspondence to: Arkadiusz Peter Wysocki, FRACS, Department of General Surgery, Logan Hospital, PO Box 4096, Loganholme DC, Queensland 4129, Australia. arek_p@ecn.net.au
Telephone: +61-7-32998523 Fax: +61-7-32998232
Received: May 5, 2010
Revised: July 2, 2010
Accepted: July 9, 2010
Published online: September 21, 2010
Abstract

The ultimate reason why pancreatologists have strived to establish definitions for inflammatory pathologies of the pancreas is to improve patient care. Although the Atlanta Classification has been used for around for 17 years, considerable misunderstanding of the key elements of the nomenclature still persists. While a recent article by Stamatakos et al aimed to deal with an entity not clearly defined in the 1993 document, it is replete with factual and conceptual errors as well as contradictory statements.

Keywords: Severe pancreatitis, Acute necrotizing pancreatitis, Walled-off pancreatic necrosis