A multicenter study on clinical characteristics of Acinetobacter bacteremia in patients with liver cirrhosis

Clinical characteristics and risk factors for mortality of Acinetobacter bacteremia in cirrhotic patients have not been investigated.

Acinetobacter bacteremia cases from four medical centers were collected from 2009 to 2014, to compare between patients with and without liver cirrhosis. Risk factors for mortality of Acinetobacter bacteremia among cirrhotic patients were identified using multivariate logistic regression.

Among the patients with Acinetobacter bacteremia, 72 had liver cirrhosis and 816 had not. Patients with cirrhosis were younger (57.5 [50-71] vs. 72 [50.25-71], p < 0.001), had more solid tumor (51.4% vs. 31.4%, p = 0.001), lower Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) scores (17 [12-24] vs. 20 [13-28], p = 0.012), less sourced from pneumonia (19.4% vs. 35.8%, p = 0.008), and less caused by Acinetobacterbaumannii (33.3% vs. 50.6%, p = 0.007) than those without. After matching for age, sex, and causative pathogens, the 30-day mortality (34.7% vs. 29.2%, p = 0.592) and APACHE II scores (17 vs. 17, p = 0.769) were not significant. APACHE II score (odds ratio [OR], 1.146; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.035-1.268; p = 0.009), bacteremia caused by A. baumannii (OR, 20.501; 95% CI, 2.301-182.649; p = 0.007), and solid tumor (OR, 18.073; 95% CI, 1.938-168.504; p = 0.011) were independent risk factors for 30-day mortality of cirrhotic patients with Acinetobacter bacteremia.

Even though cirrhotic patients with Acinetobacter bacteremia were younger and had lower APACHE II scores than non-cirrhotic patients, the mortality rates were insignificantly different between the two groups.