Emergency Department Visits Related to Cirrhosis: A Retrospective Study of the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample 2006 to 2011

There is scant literature about cirrhosis and its associated complications in a non-hospitalized population. To study the epidemiology of cirrhosis-associated Emergency Department visits in the US. Estimates were calculated in patients’ ≥18 years using the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample. The number of visits associated with an International Classification of Diseases-9 diagnosis code of cirrhosis increased non-significantly from 23.81/10,000 population (2006) to 23.9/10,000 population (2011; P = 0.05). A majority of these patients (75.30%) underwent hospital admission, the greatest risk factor for this was the presence of ≥3 comorbidities (adjusted odds ratio 30.8; 95% Confidence Interval 30.4–31.2). Infection was the most frequent concurrent complicating diagnosis associated with cirrhosis (20.1%). There was a decreased incidence in most of the complicating conditions except for hepatorenal syndrome and spontaneous bacterial peritonitis. Our results indicate a stable trend for cirrhosis-associated Emergency Department visits from 2006 to 2011. Further studies are required to investigate the increased incidence of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis and hepatorenal renal syndrome in the cirrhotic population.