Variceal hemorrhage: Analysis of 9987 cases from a Japanese nationwide database

Gastroesophageal variceal hemorrhage is an important complication of cirrhosis. We investigated the in-hospital mortality and its risk factors after variceal hemorrhage in a large sample population, using a nationwide Japanese database.

Data on the patients with variceal hemorrhage were collected for a total of 39 months from a nationwide administrative database covering approximately 1000 hospitals in Japan. The risk factors for fatal outcome after variceal hemorrhage were analyzed with receiver-operator curves (ROC) and univariate and multivariate logistic regression. Comorbidities were assessed with the Charlson Comorbidity Index.

We identified 9987 patients with variceal hemorrhage from a total of 20.3 million inpatients in the database. The median age was 63 years and 68.8% were male. The overall in-hospital mortality was 16.8% (1676 cases). In univariate analysis, Child-Pugh class was the strongest predictor; the area under the ROC of Child-Pugh score for predicting in-hospital mortality was 0.802. In multivariate analysis, increased in-hospital mortality was significantly associated with male sex (vs female: odds ratio [OR] = 1.19, P = 0.01), older age, Child-Pugh class B or C (B vs A: OR = 2.80, P < 0.001; C vs A: OR = 20.1, P < 0.001) and higher Charlson Comorbidity Index (≥6 vs ≤5; OR = 1.29, P < 0.001).

In spite of recent advances in the treatment of variceal hemorrhage, the in-hospital mortality remained as high as 16%. Poor liver function was the most important predictor, suggesting that liver failure after variceal hemorrhage might have been the cause of death.