Impact of Morbid Obesity on Patients With Hypertriglyceridemia Induced Acute Pancreatitis

Introduction: Obesity is reportedly associated with worse outcome in patients with acute pancreatitis (AP). However, AP has varying etiologies. Hypertriglyceridemia induced acute pancreatitis (HTGP) has sociodemographic variations compared to AP from biliary stones or alcohol. This study aimed to determine the impact of obesity on outcomes of patients with HTGP. Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study of the combined Nationwide Inpatient Sample database for 2016 and 2017. Hospital discharges of patients 18 years and over with HTGP were included. This cohort was divided based on presence of comorbid obesity into three groups- patients without obesity, mild-moderate obesity (MMO) (BMI: 30.0 - 39.9) and morbid obesity (MO) (BMI >=40.0). Primary outcome was inpatient mortality. Secondary outcomes included length of hospital stay (LOS), total hospital charges (THC), discharge diagnoses of hypocalcemia, sepsis, septic shock, acute renal failure (AKI) and acute respiratory failure (ARF). Multivariate regression analysis was used to adjust for patients’ sociodemographic factors, Charlson comorbidity index as well as hospital characteristics as confounders. Results: A total of 104,465 hospitalizations were principally for HTGP, accounting for 18.2% of patients with acute pancreatitis during the study period. Of the patients with HTGP, 13.7% and 10.9% of these patients classified as having MMO and MO respectively. Patients with obesity were significantly younger than patients without obesity. In patients with MO, there was higher odds of mortality (aOR=1.83, 95% CI: 1.090 – 3.083, p=0.022), while there was no difference in mortality in patients with MMO (aOR 1.09 95% CI: 0.609 – 1.940, p=0.777), both compared with patients without obesity. Patients with MO had increased mean LOS of 0.5 days (95% CI: 0.3 – 0.7, p<0.001) as well as increased THC of $3977 (95% CI: 1467 – 6487, p=0.002) compared to those without obesity. There was no difference in mortality, THC and LOS in patients with MMO. Morbidly obese patients also had increased odds of septic shock (aOR=2.27, 95% CI: 1.297 – 3.972, p=0.007), AKI (aOR=1.28, 95% CI: 1.120 – 1.459, p<0.001), and ARF (aOR=1.94, 95% CI: 1.491 – 2.524, p<0.001). Conclusion: Morbid obesity is associated with higher mortality and poor outcomes in patient with hypertriglyceridemia induced pancreatitis.