Malnutrition Steatorrhea

Patients with alcoholic CP usually present with an initial acute attack followed by successive attacks that are slower to resolve. Continued alcohol use leads to chronic abdominal pain and progressive exocrine and endocrine insufficiency. In about 50% of patients, the pain diminishes 5 to 10 years after the onset of symptoms. Steatorrhea, calcification, and diabetes usually develop after 10 to 20 years of heavy ethanol ingestion. Most patients present with varying degrees of pain, malnutrition, and glucose intolerance. The mortality rate of CP is approximately 50% within 20 to 25 years of the diagnosis. About 15% to 20% actually die of complications associated with acute attacks. Most deaths occur as a consequence of malnutrition, infection, or ethanol, narcotic, and tobacco nse. The clinical course of idiopathic CP is more favorable than that of alcoholic pancreatitis. ... 

Malnutrition may also result from disease of the gastrointestinal tract. Among the malabsorption syndromes, carbohydrate malabsorption due to inborn errors of metabolism, the dumping syndrome resulting from gastrectomy, and steatorrhea will be discussed [136]. 

---