Abstract

Acute pancreatitis is a rare but severe postprocedural complication after transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) of hepatocellular carcinoma with an incidence of 1.7-4%. The proposed mechanism of this complication is inadvertent embolization through collateral vessels or regurgitation of chemotherapeutic agents to the arteries of other organs. Here, we present a fatal necrotizing pancreatitis case which developed 10 days after TACE, caused by the regurgitation of the chemotherapeutic agents to the pancreas during the procedure. The patient recovered with conservative care at first, but after suffering from several times of recurrent pancreatitis, he died of peritoneal septic shock 5 months after the initial pancreatitis attack.

• Keywords: Complication;Hepatocellular carcinoma;Pancreatitis;Necrotizing pancreatitis;Transarterial chemoembolization