Pancreatic insufficiency can occur if there is damage to your pancreas, due to surgery or other health conditions.
Your pancreas plays an important role in your digestive system. Its job is making and releasing enzymes that help your digestive system break down food and absorb nutrients.
Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI) develops when your pancreas doesn’t make or deliver enough of those enzymes. That enzyme shortage makes it difficult for your body to convert food into forms your digestive system can use.
In this article, we’ll go over some of the symptoms of EPI, as well as causes and prevention.
The symptoms of EPI become most noticeable when production of the enzyme responsible for breaking down fat drops to 5 to 10 percent of normal.
When this happens, you may experience:
- weight loss
- diarrhea
- fatty and oily stools
- symptoms associated with malnutrition
EPI occurs when your pancreas stops releasing enough enzymes to support normal digestion.
There are a variety of conditions or events can damage your pancreas and lead to EPI. Some of them, such as pancreatitis, cause EPI by directly damaging your pancreatic cells that make digestive enzymes.
Chronic pancreatitis
Chronic pancreatitis is inflammation of your pancreas that doesn’t go away over time. This form of pancreatitis is the most common cause of EPI in adults.
The ongoing inflammation of your pancreas damages the cells that make digestive enzymes. That’s why most people with ongoing pancreatitis also develop exocrine insufficiency.
Acute pancreatitis
Compared to chronic pancreatitis, EPI is far less common in pancreatitis that comes and goes for short periods of time. Untreated acute pancreatitis can develop into the chronic form over time, increasing your chances of developing EPI.
Autoimmune pancreatitis
This is a type of ongoing pancreatitis that occurs when your immune system attacks your pancreas. Steroid treatment may help people with autoimmune pancreatitis see improved enzyme production.
Diabetes
People with diabetes frequently develop EPI. Researchers don’t fully understand this relationship, but it’s likely related to the hormonal imbalances that your pancreas experiences during diabetes.
Surgery
EPI is a common side effect of digestive tract or pancreas surgery. According to a number of studies of gastric surgery, up to
When a surgeon removes all or part of your pancreas it may produce smaller enzyme amounts. Stomach, intestinal, and pancreatic surgeries can also lead to EPI by changing the way your digestive system fits together.
For example, removing part of the stomachcan disturb the gut reflexes needed to fully mix nutrients with pancreatic enzymes.
Genetic conditions
Cystic fibrosis is an inherited disease that causes the body to produce a thick mucus layer. This mucus clings to the lungs, digestive system, and other organs.
Shwachman-Diamond syndrome is a very rare, inherited condition that affects your bones, bone marrow, and pancreas. People with this condition usually experience EPI in early childhood. Pancreatic function may improve in children as they mature.
Celiac disease
Celiac disease is associated with an inability to digest gluten. The disease affects about 1 percent of American adults.
Sometimes, people who follow a gluten-free diet still have symptoms, like ongoing diarrhea. In this case, the symptoms may be caused by EPI that’s associated with Celiac disease.
Pancreatic cancer
EPI is a complication of pancreatic cancer. The process of cancer cells replacing pancreatic cells can lead to EPI.A tumor may also block enzymes from entering the digestive tract. EPI is also a complication of surgery to treat pancreatic cancer.
Inflammatory bowel diseases
Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are both inflammatory bowel diseases that cause your immune system to attack and inflame your digestive tract.
Many people with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis may also develop EPI. However, researchers haven’t identified the exact cause of this relationship.
Zollinger-Ellison syndrome
This is a rare disease where tumors in your pancreas or elsewhere in your gut produce large amounts of hormones. This leads to excessive stomach acid, which keeps your digestive enzymes from working properly and causing EPI.
Many of the conditions related to EPI, including pancreatic cancer, cystic fibrosis, diabetes, and pancreatic cancer, can’t be controlled.
But there are some factors that you can control. Heavy, continual alcohol use is the most common cause of ongoing pancreatitis. Combining alcohol use with a high-fat diet and smoking may increase your chances of pancreatitis.
People with pancreatitis caused by heavy alcohol use tend to have more severe stomach pain and develop EPI more rapidly. Cystic fibrosis or pancreatitis running in your family can also increase your chances of developing EPI.