Clinical Characteristics of Chronic Pancreatitis in a Saudi Arabian Population: A Retrospective Cohort Study at Riyadh Second Health Cluster

TL;DR

This study examines the causes and symptoms of chronic pancreatitis in Saudi Arabia, where alcohol is not a major cause, and finds smoking and other factors linked to the condition.

Contribution

The study provides new insights into the non-alcohol-related causes and complications of chronic pancreatitis in a Saudi Arabian population.

Findings

Chronic pancreatitis in Saudi Arabia is often linked to smoking rather than alcohol.

Common symptoms include upper abdominal pain, fever, and jaundice, with high rates of complications like pancreatic cancer.

Smoking and non-alcoholic factors are significant in this population despite cultural differences.

Abstract

Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is a progressive inflammatory condition with regional differences in prevalence and etiology. Though alcohol and smoking are primarily the risk factors in Western populations, CP resulted from alcohol is rare in Saudi Arabia due to cultural differences. Our study aim to characterize the Etiology, clinical presentation, and complications of CP in Saudi Arabian adults who are minimally alcohol exposure.

Our retrospective research highlights on patients who are 14 years of age and older that diagnosed with CP, who are treated at King Fahad Medical City from the timeline of 2013 until 2024. The Demographics, clinical presentations, laboratory, radiological and comorbidity data were obtained from the electronic records of KFMC then analysed by SPSS version 27 program. Our study is approved ethically by the KFMC Research Center, and we ensure all participants’ data remained anonymous.

We identified 117 CP patients (65% female, 95.7% Saudi) with a median age of 42 years and median disease duration of 4 years. Smoking was reported in 40.2% of cases. The predominant symptom was right upper quadrant pain (80.3%), followed by fever (12%), jaundice (11.1%), and pruritus (10.3%). Median laboratory values included amylase 74 U/L, lipase 39.4 U/L, calcium 2.36 mmol/L, triglycerides 1.35 mmol/L, and IgG4 0.847 g/L. Frequent complications included pancreatic leak/fistula (46.2%), pseudocysts (27.4%), bile duct obstruction (26.5%), and pancreatic carcinoma (13.7%). New-onset diabetes and duodenal obstruction each occurred in 9.5%, while metabolic bone disease and autoimmune hepatitis were rare (0.9%).

In Saudi Arabia, CP often occurs without alcohol consumption, but with smoking emerging as a potential risk factor. Despite this non-alcoholic profile, the risk of serious complications, including pancreatic cancer, remains high. Multicentric studies are needed to clarify risk factors and optimize the management.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s44197-025-00504-9.