Acute pancreatitis (AP) is an important type of emergent abdominal diseases. Early diagnosis and treatment are of great importance to the prognosis of patients. Contrast-enhanced CT applied in patients with AP is regarded as “gold standard” in current imaging technologies. However, with the development of medical engineering technology and the emerging ultrasound technologies in recent years, ultrasound imaging as an important tool is playing an increasingly important role in diagnosis, image-guided treatment and monitoring of AP. Therefore, we summarized the current status of ultrasound imaging in the application of AP in this review, which arouses the attention of the relevant practitioners.