• Umair Iqbal, Hafsa Anwar, and Melissa Scribani.
• Department of Internal Medicine, Bassett Medical Center, Cooperstown, New York, USA.
• J Dig Dis. 2018 Jun 1; 19 (6): 335-341.

ObjectiveAggressive i.v. hydration with crystalloids is the first step in managing acute pancreatitis (AP) and is associated with improved survival. Guidelines about the choice of crystalloids to use are unclear. This systematic review and meta-analysis was aimed to discern whether the choice of fluids in managing pancreatitis was associated with patients' outcomes.MethodsA comprehensive literature review was conducted by searching the Embase, MEDLINE, PubMed and Google Scholar databases to December 2017 to identify all studies that compared normal saline (NS) with Ringer's lactate (RL) for managing AP. The characteristics of the participants, outcome measurements (including mortality, the development of systemic inflammatory response syndrome [SIRS] on admission and at 24 h, and pancreatic necrosis) were analyzed.ResultsFive studies (three randomized controlled trials and two retrospective cohort studies) with 428 patients were included in this analysis. Mortality trended lower in the RL group but this was not statistically significant (pooled odds ratio [OR] 0.61, 95% CI 0.28-1.29, P = 0.20). Patients in the RL group had significantly decreased odds of developing SIRS at 24 h (pooled OR 0.38, 95% CI 0.15-0.98, P = 0.05).ConclusionsRL has anti-inflammatory effects and is associated with decreased odds of persistent SIRS at 24 h, which is a marker of severe disease in AP patients. Although mortality trended lower in the RL group this did not achieve statistical significance and hence larger randomized controlled trials are needed to evaluate this association.© 2018 Chinese Medical Association Shanghai Branch, Chinese Society of Gastroenterology, Renji Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

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