Objective To study the etiological factors,clinical characteristics and diagnosis of acute pancreatitis (AP).Methods The clinical data of 217 patients with AP treated from January 2005to December 2010 in our hospital were studied retrospectively.Results The majority of patients were male (60.4％).The average age was 52.5 years.Cholelithiasiss,hyperlipidemia and trauma were the most frequent etiologic causes of AP.There were 164 patients with mild (75.6％) and 53 patients with severe (24.4％) AP.151 patients underwent surgical or endoscopical treatment (69.6 ％) while 66 patients underwent non-operative treatment (30.4 ％).14 of 53 patients with severe AP died.Conclusions AP should be treated according to the cause and the type.The key to reduce complications and increase cure rate is to find the cause of AP and then treat the underlying disease.