Word parts
What it means
An organ with two jobs. Most of it makes digestive juices full of enzymes that flow into the small intestine to break down fats, proteins and carbohydrates. Small groups of cells inside it (the islets) make hormones that control blood sugar: insulin lowers it and glucagon raises it. Inflammation of the pancreas is pancreatitis.
For the nurse
Pancreatitis causes severe upper belly pain that can spread to the back; clients are often kept from eating at first so the pancreas can rest. A lab test of the enzyme lipase is used to check the pancreas.
At a glance
| Spanish | páncreas |
|---|---|
| Also written | pancreatic |
Related terms
insulin
A hormone made by the pancreas that lets the body's cells take in glucose, also made as a medicine.
diabetes mellitus
A long-term disease in which blood glucose stays high because the body makes too little insulin or cannot use it well.
gastrointestinal
Having to do with the stomach and intestines, or with the whole digestive tract from the mouth to the anus.
glucose
A simple sugar that is the body's main source of energy.
type 1 diabetes
A form of diabetes in which the pancreas makes little or no insulin because the immune system has destroyed the cells that make it.