ABSTRACT
The pancreas is set deep in the abdomen and is very rarely damaged by trauma. It may cause abdominal pain if it is infected, especially by the mumps virus, but the commonest cause of damage in children is secondary to cystic fibrosis, which causes excess stickiness of the fluid from the pancreas to the gut. This build-up eventually causes destruction of the pancreas. Children with cystic fibrosis, therefore, need to take extra pancreatic enzymes by mouth and may eventually develop diabetes.
