Malnutrition Imparts Worse Outcomes in Patients Admitted for Acute Pancreatitis

Purpose Cessation of enteral nutrition is usually a part of the early stage of acute pancreatitis (AP) treatment. To our knowledge, there is no large database study that examines the effects of preexisting malnutrition on the morbidities of patients admitted for acute pancreatitis. We aimed to investigate the effects of malnutrition on patients admitted for acute pancreatitis. Methods Data between 2008 and 2014 from the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) database was extracted. Inclusion criteria included patients with a primary diagnosis of AP using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) codes, and ages greater than 17. Exclusion criteria included ICD-9 codes for chronic pancreatitis. The study group consisted of patients with a primary diagnosis of AP and a concurrent diagnosis of malnutrition. In-hospital mortality was compared using univariate and multivariate analyses to generate odds ratios. Elixhauser comorbidity scores predicting mortality and readmission were calculated based on weighted scores from 29 different comorbidities and compared using univariate analysis. Results Patients with malnutrition were significantly more likely to experience in-hospital mortality, sepsis, severe sepsis, septic shock, and respiratory failure. Malnutrition was found to increase mortality. Female sex and Black or Hispanic race showed lower mortality. Conclusion We hypothesize that there are likely other preexisting comorbidities that lead to malnutrition before the onset of pancreatitis. Malnutrition can cause impaired healing and the ability to recover from acute inflammation, which may be why the study group had a higher rate of sepsis.