AIM: To identify risk factors predictive of intensive care unit (ICU) mortality in patients with ventilatorrelated pancreatitis. The clinical outcomes of patients with ventilator-related pancreatitis were compared with those of patients with pancreatitis-related respiratory failure as well as controls.METHODS: One hundred and forty-eight patients with respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation and concomitant acute pancreatitis were identified from a prospectively collected dataset of 9108 consecutive patients admitted with respiratory failure over a period of five years. Sixty patients met the criteria for ventilator-related pancreatitis, and 88 (control patients), for pancreatitis-related respiratory failure.RESULTS: Mortality rate in ventilator-related pancreatitis was comparable to that in ICU patients without pancreatitis by case-control methodology ( P = 0.544). Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified low PaO_2/FiO_2 (OR: 1.032, 95% CI: 1.006-1.059, P = 0.016) as an independent risk factor for mortality in patients with ventilator-related pancreatitis. The mortality rate in patients with ventilator-related pancreatitis was lower than that in patients with acute pancreatitis-related respiratory failure ( P < 0.001).CONCLUSION: We found that low PaO_2/FiO_2 was an independent clinical parameter predictive of ICU mortality in patients with ventilator-related pancreatitis.