Alcohol-associated cirrhosis linked to higher mortality post-ICU discharge
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Patients with alcohol-associated cirrhosis had higher mortality following ICU discharge compared with patients with cirrhosis related to other causes, according to study results published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
“Surprisingly, there was no significant difference in survival for patients who abstained from alcohol 6 months or more before ICU admission and those who did not,” lead author, Chansong Choi, MD, an internal medicine resident at the Mayo Clinic, said in a news release. “This may reflect too short a period of abstinence, as other studies have suggested that at least 1 to 1.5 years of abstinence might be needed to make a significant difference in survival outcomes in patients with [alcohol-associated cirrhosis].”
In a retrospective study, Choi and colleagues assessed 1,174 patients with cirrhosis who were admitted to the ICU between January 2006 and December 2015. Of those patients, 578 had alcohol-associated cirrhosis and 596 had cirrhosis linked to other causes. Survival rates within the ICU, post-ICU in-hospital and 30 days post-ICU discharge were among the outcomes of interest.
Results showed ICU mortality rates in alcohol-associated cirrhosis compared with non-alcohol-associated cirrhosis were not significantly different (10.2% vs. 11.7%). However, patients with alcohol-associated cirrhosis had significantly higher post-ICU in-hospital death (10% vs. 6.5%, = .04) and higher mortality at 30-day post-ICU discharge (18.7% vs. 11.2%, P < .001).
According to researchers, sustained alcohol abstinence offered no survival advantage compared with nonabstinence. In addition, they determined that quick sequential organ failure assessment (qSOFA) had limited predictive power for sepsis and in-hospital mortality.
“Our study finds that qSOFA is a poor prognosticator of sepsis and in-hospital mortality among patients with cirrhosis,” Choi said. “We need better bedside tools to predict infection and sepsis in these patient groups so we can implement the appropriate therapeutic measures.”
Collapse
Study finds that patients with alcohol-associated cirrhosis have worse outcomes in recovering from critical illness, compared with other cirrhosis patients. https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/study-finds-that-patients-with-alcohol-associated-cirrhosis-have-worse-outcomes-in-recovering-from-critical-illness-compared-with-other-cirrhosis-patients/. Published Jan. 25, 2022. Accessed Jan. 25, 2022.
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts