Wang M, Jiang Z, Liang H, et al. - Glucocorticoids are supported to have beneficial effects in the treatment of acute pancreatitis.

• The final analysis was performed including a total of 818 eligible patients with acute pancreatitis.

• Glucocorticoids were used in treating 76 patients, but not in 742 patients.

• Before propensity score matching, the GC group had significantly higher triglyceride levels (38.2 ± 18.5 vs 20.2 ± 16.8) and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) scores (7.1 ± 2.5 vs 4.5 ± 2.1) at admission, as well as had significantly higher incidence of multi-organ failure (33.3% vs 11.9%), compared with the NGC group.

• After 1:1 propensity score matching, the analysis included 59 patients from each group (GC and NGC) and the GC group had a significantly lower proportion of patients with organ failure (40.7% vs 52.5%) and multi-organ failure (35.0% vs 67.7%) and had significantly shorter lengths of hospital stay (12.9 ± 5.5 vs. 16.3 ± 7.7) and costs (25,348.4 ± 2512.6 vs 32,421.7 ± 2813.3) compared with those in the NGC group.