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Risk of acute pancreatitis reduced among patients using simvastatin
Simvastatin use was associated with a reduced risk of acute pancreatitis, according to new research.
A retrospective cohort study (2006-2012) analyzed data from 3,967,859 adult patients in the Kaiser Permanente Southern California health plan, of which 6,399 developed an initial episode of acute pancreatitis (AP) during a follow-up period of 3.4 years. Patient exposure to simvastatin was calculated from time of initial dispensation until 60 days after lapse of prescription, with 707,236 patients (mean age 42.1 years; 51.2% women) receiving simvastatin (median average daily dose 20.3 mg/day; median duration 2.3 years) during the study period. Compared to the reference population, patients receiving simvastatin were more likely to have gallstone-related disorder, alcohol dependence of hypertriglyceridemia.
Investigators used robust Poisson regression to estimate risk ratios for simvastatin use, repeating the analysis for atorvastatin.
Acute pancreatitis risk was reduced among patients using simvastatin (IRR=0.626; 95% CI, 0.588-0.668). After adjusting for age, gender, race-ethnicity, gallstone disorders, alcohol dependence, smoking and hypertriglyceridemia, multivariate analysis showed simvastatin was independently associated with reduced risk of AP (aRR=0.29; 95% CI, 0.27-0.31). The results for atorvastatin were similar (aRR=0.33; CI, 0.29-0.38).
“Among simvastatin users, risk of pancreatitis was reduced with increased doses of simvastatin,” the study authors wrote. “For the moment, we suggest that AP that occurs in the setting of either simvastatin or atorvastatin should not be attributed to use of these medications.”
Disclosure: The study authors report no relevant financial disclosures.