Morbid Obesity Does Not Impact Mortality, Rate of Endoscopy in Patients With Biliary Acute Pancreatitis: A US Nationwide Analysis

Introduction: Morbid obesity (MO) is associated with increased mortality in various conditions including acute pancreatitis. Interventions are challenging in patients with MO due to higher prevalence of comorbidities that may affect airway and cardiopulmonary management. Biliary acute pancreatitis (BAP) is the most common etiology for acute pancreatitis in the US. Population-based studies on the effect of obesity on biliary acute pancreatitis are lacking. This study aimed to assess the impact of MO on outcomes of patients with BAP. Methods: Data was obtained from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample database for 2016 and 2017. Hospital discharges of patients 18 years and over with a principal diagnosis of BAP were included. This cohort was divided based on BMI into nonobese patients (BMI <30) and morbidly obese (MO) patients (BMI >/=40.0). Patients with BMI between 30.0–39.9 were excluded. Primary outcome was inpatient mortality. Secondary outcomes included rate of endoscopic procedures, length of hospital stay (LOS), total hospital charges (THC), discharge diagnoses of hypocalcemia, 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 128995 hospitalizations were principally for BAP, with 75.7% and 12.0% of these patients classified as nonobese and MO respectively. There was a significantly higher proportion of females (66.1 vs 54.5%, p<0.001) and lower mean age (50.1 vs 58.7 years, p<0.001) in patients with MO. There was no significant difference in adjusted odds of mortality (aOR=1.34, 95% CI: 0.88 - 2.03, p=0.174), or rate of endoscopy (aOR 1.00 95% CI: 0.91 - 1.11, p=0.958), in MO compared with patients who were nonobese. However, MO patients had increased mean LOS of 0.8 days (95% CI: 0.5 - 1.0, p<0.001), increased mean THC of $10760 (95% CI: 7077 - 14442, p<0.001), increased odds of hypocalcemia (aOR=1.60, 95% CI: 1.22 - 2.09, p=0.001), septic shock (aOR=2.13, 95% CI: 1.39 - 3.25, p<0.001), and AKI (aOR=1.48, 95% CI: 1.30 - 1.68, p<0.001). Conclusion: Even though we did not find any significative difference in mortality, patients with MO appear to have and increased LOS and THC, as well as more complications like septic shock, AKI, and hypocalcemia. This calls for a greater recognition of this association for further research studies and to recognize this potential association during clinical practice.