Obesity Is Associated With Higher odds of Hepatorenal syndrome in Patients Admitted With Alcoholic Hepatitis: Analysis of the National Inpatient Sample (2016–2017)

Introduction: Obesity is a significant independent risk factor for the development of liver disease. There is some available data suggesting worse outcomes of alcoholic hepatitis (AH) in obese patients however, national sample data supporting these findings are scarce. The aim of our study was to study the severity of AH in patients with concurrent obesity thus we analyzed data from the national inpatient sample. Methods: We queried the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) 2016 and 2017 database. The NIS was searched for hospitalization of adult patients with alcoholic hepatitis as a principal diagnosis with and without Obesity (BMI = 30 and above) as a secondary diagnosis using ICD-10 codes. The primary outcome was inpatient mortality while the secondary outcomes were severe sepsis with shock, hospital length of stay (LOS), NSTEMI, hepatorenal syndrome (HRS) and bleeding esophageal varices (BEV) development. STATA software was used for analysis. Multivariate logistic and linear regression analysis was used accordingly to adjust for confounders. Results: There were over 71 million discharges in the combined 2016 and 2017 NIS database. Out of 32,584 adult AH hospitalizations, 3,720 (11.4%) had a concomitant diagnosis of obesity. There were no differences between mean age, sex and race in both groups of patients. Patients with AH and concurrent obesity had no significant difference in inpatient mortality (aOR= 0.74, P = 0.272, CI = 0.438 -1.261) however, they were found to have higher odds of developing HRS (aOR = 1.54, P= 0.020, CI= 1.069 -2.209) and lower odds of developing BEV(aOR 0.22, P= 0.008, CI= 0.070 -0.670). Patients with AH and concurrent obesity were also found to have similar odds of developing NSTEMI (aOR = 2.29, P= 0.180, CI= 0.680 - 7.762), severe sepsis with shock (aOR = 0.97%, P= 0.945, CI= 0.486 -1.954) and a 0.5 day mean increase in LOS (P =0.045, CI = 0.011 - 0.987) when compared to those without obesity. Conclusion: In conclusion, patients with obesity admitted with AH have higher odds of developing HRS, lower odds of developing BEV and no statistically significant difference in mortality, development of NSTEMI and severe sepsis with septic shock. It is important to identify these patients at higher risk and provide better surveillance to prevent the development of HRS.