Gastrointestinal Disorders Chapter 26. Pancreatitis is classified as either acute or chronic.
Acute pancreatitis refers to an acute inflammation that resolves both clinically and histologically.
Chronic pancreatitis is characterized by histologic changes that persist even after the cause has been removed. The histologic changes in chronic pancreatitis are irreversible and tend to progress, resulting in serious loss of exocrine and endocrine pancreatic function and deterioration of pancreatic structure. All rights reserved.