New severity classification system for acute pancreatitis             LOU Wen-hui. Zhong Shan Hospital, Fudan University,Shanghai200032,China
Abstract    Severity classification for acute pancreatitis is crucial for clinical practice and research. After worldwide questionnaire and discussion, the International Association of Pancreatology proposed determinant-based classification of acute pancreatitis severity, which based on the actual local and systemic determinants of severity。The local determinant refers to whether there is (peri)pancreatic necrosis or not; the systemic determinant relates to whether there is organ failure or not, and if present, whether it is transient or persistent. The presence of different determinants classifies acute pancreatitis into 4 categories of severity—mild, moderate, severe, and critical. The advantage of this classification system is clinical based, rather than physiological and biochemical parameters, but still needs to be verified by prospective study.