Severe Sepsis Outcomes Among Hospitalizations With Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Patients with inflammatory bowel disease have a unique inflammatory response to infection given the pathogenesis of these diseases and the common use of immunosuppressive therapy.

The goal of this study is to determine severe sepsis outcomes in a subgroup of visits with the comorbidities of inflammatory bowel disease.

The 2012 National Inpatient Sample database was used to identify patients with explicitly coded diagnoses of severe sepsis or septic shock. Visits with chronic inflammatory bowel disease and other inflammatory diagnoses were identified using ICD-9 codes. Sepsis outcomes of interest were identified using ICD-9 codes.

There were 92,296 visits for severe sepsis or septic shock in the analysis. In the control group, the in-hospital mortality rate was 26.5%. Ulcerative colitis visits had a higher mortality rate (34.9%) while Crohn disease visits had lower mortality (19.6%). After adjusting for potential confounders, ulcerative colitis was independently associated with higher mortality (odds ratio [OR] 1.61, 95% CI 1.35-1.93). Conversely, Crohn disease was independently associated with lower mortality (OR 0.78, 95% CI 0.63-0.97).

Sepsis visits with Crohn disease had improved outcomes compared with the control group. Conversely, visits with ulcerative colitis had markedly worsened sepsis-related outcomes. Further investigation is needed to determine the mechanisms underlying these clinical differences.