Hospital Infections Negatively Impact Pancreatitis

Mortality increases in acute pancreatitis patients with hospital-acquired infections

FRIDAY, Sept. 26 (HealthDay News) -- Acute episodes of pancreatitis complicated by hospital-acquired infections result in increased mortality, length of hospital stay and hospital charges, according to a report in the September issue of Gastroenterology.

Bechien U. Wu, M.D., of the Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues performed a multivariate propensity-matched cohort study examining the impact of hospital-acquired infections on in-hospital mortality, length of stay and hospital charges in acute pancreatitis using data from the Cardinal Health Clinical Outcomes Research Database.

Overall, the investigators identified 11,046 cases of acute pancreatitis in 177 participating hospitals, with 82 patients developing a hospital-acquired infection. Mortality was significantly higher in the 82 acute pancreatitis patients with hospital-acquired infections (28.4 percent) compared to the 405 matched non-hospital-acquired infection patients (11.4 percent) and the general population of acute pancreatitis controls (1.2 percent), the report indicates. Hospital-acquired infections were associated with 15 percent of all deaths, as well as significant increases in length of stay and hospital charges, the authors conclude.

"In summary, patients with acute pancreatitis who developed a hospital-acquired infection had markedly increased in-hospital mortality, length of stay and hospital charges," Wu and colleagues write. "Our findings suggest that aggressive efforts to reduce hospital-acquired infection may lead to significantly improved outcomes for patients with acute pancreatitis."

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