Abstract Thirty-eight patients treated by pancreatic debridement for acute necrotizing pancreatitis were studied. Group 1 consisted of 12 critically ill patients who underwent early surgery. Group 2 was formed from 15 patients operated upon secondarily for supervening complications and group 3 contained 11 patients operated upon electively for gallstone pancreatitis. The operative mortality was 100, 27 and 0 per cent for groups 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Pancreatic debridement was associated with a high morbidity whether performed for complications (66 per cent) or elective biliary surgery (36 per cent). These data suggest that there is probably only limited indication for pancreatic debridement in patients with acute necrotizing pancreatitis.