In April 2020, medical teams in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Italy revealed a newly identified pediatric illness related to COVID-19 that is characterized by severe inflammation and symptoms similar to Kawasaki disease. Prior to these findings, data from the early COVID-19 outbreaks in China showed that the virus did not cause considerable morbidity or mortality in children. Pancreatitis has yet to be described in either acute SARS-CoV-2 infection or the following inflammatory illness in children.
The study describes a patient who has acute pancreatitis before fast progression to multisystem organ failure in children with COVID-19 inflammatory multiple-system syndrome. Clinicians should be aware that pancreatitis may be an early manifestation of inflammatory multi-system syndrome in children in the setting of the COVID-19 pandemic.
