Acute pancreatitis is a prevalent disease, responsible for 220.000 hospital admissions per year in the USA. In Chile, during year 2012 there were 76.463 hospital admissions for this diagnosis, with a mean hospital stay of 11,8 days and 25 deaths per year associated with this disease (250 deaths from 2002 to 2012). The most frequent etiology of pancreatitis in Chile is gallstones, which can be present in 80% of the patients admitted for acute pancreatitis. This can be explained by the high prevalence of gallstones among these patients.