Objective: To study the clinical characters, diagnosis and principles of treatmentof acute pancreatitis during pregnancy.Methods:Fortyeight cases of acute pancreatitis during pregnancy treated in the recent 8 years were retrospectively analyzed, 38 cases had nonsurgical treatment (of which 36 cases were cured); 10 cases had surgical treatment to remove necrotic tissue and mainly termination of pregnancy.Results:Most of the cases in this group had simple pancreatitis, which accounted for 64.58% (31/48).There were 5 cases of maternal (10.42%) death and three cases of fetal (6.25%) death, and all were in patients with severe pancreatitis. Fatality rate of pregnant women with severe pancreatitis was 29.41%.Conclusions:Acute pancreatitis during pregnancy is a serious disease with low prevalence rate,but has high fatality rate, and is the primary cause of death in acute abdomen of pregnancy. Nonoperative treatment is the first choice of treatment in this condition.In severe cases,timely surgical intervention is warranted,and the surgical indications should not be altered because of the pregnancy.The safety of both the pregnant woman and the fetus must simultaneously be kept into mind during therapy.