OBJECTIVE

To explore the risk factors of abdominal hemorrhage (AH) in patients with severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) and its impact on outcome.

METHODS

The clinical data of 231 SAP patients admitted to Diagnosis and Treatment Center for SAP of Guizhou Province from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. These patients were divided into AH group and non-AH group. The general information, etiology, acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE II) score, sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score, organ failure, complications, interventions, bleeding time, bleeding site and outcome were compared between the two groups. Binary multivariate Logistic regression analysis was used to explore the risk factors of AH in SAP patients and whether the time and location of AH were risk factors affecting the outcome.

RESULTS

A total of 231 patients were enrolled in the analysis, including 198 patients without AH and 33 with AH (14.3%). There was no significant difference in gender, age or etiology between the two groups. The scores of APACHE II and SOFA in AH group were significantly higher than those in non-AH group [APACHE II score: 18 (12, 24) vs. 13 (9, 19), SOFA score: 9 (5, 15) vs. 5 (4, 11), both P < 0.01]. The incidences of acute kidney injury (AKI), gastrointestinal dysfunction, coagulation disorders, necrotic infection, pseudocyst and gastrointestinal fistula in AH group were significantly higher than those in non-AH group (66.7% vs. 47.0%, 36.4% vs. 7.1%, 18.2% vs. 6.6%, 66.7% vs. 9.1%, 66.7% vs. 34.3%, 9.1% vs. 1.5%, all P < 0.05). The proportions of requiring mechanical ventilation (MV) and surgical intervention in AH group were significantly higher than those in non-AH group (69.7% vs. 43.4, 48.5% vs. 14.6%, both P < 0.01). The length of intensive care unit (ICU) stay and hospital stay in AH group were significantly longer than those in non-AH group [length of ICU stay (days): 13 (8, 19) vs. 7 (3, 16), length of hospital stay: 24 (13, 40) vs. 17 (12, 24), both P < 0.01], and the hospital mortality was significantly higher (60.6% vs. 9.6%, P < 0.01). Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that APACHE II score [odds ratio (OR) = 1.157, 95% confidence interval (95%CI) was 1.030-1.299, P = 0.014], infectious necrosis (OR = 12.211, 95%CI was 4.063-36.697, P < 0.01), pseudocyst (OR = 3.568, 95%CI was 1.238-10.283, P = 0.019) and requiring MV (OR = 0.089, 95%CI was 1.354-6.625, P = 0.007) were the risk factors of AH in SAP patients. In 33 AH patients, there was no significant difference in hospital mortality between early hemorrhage (occurred within 2 weeks of onset) and late hemorrhage (occurred 2 weeks after onset) groups [66.7% (8/12) vs. 57.1% (12/21), P > 0.05]. All 4 patients in the unspecified bleeding site group died during hospitalization; half or more patients died in the pseudocyst/abscess bleeding (14 cases), mesenteric/intestinal bleeding (13 cases) and gastric variceal bleeding (2 cases) groups (7 cases, 8 cases and 1 case respectively), and there were significant differences among the groups (P < 0.05). Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that neither bleeding time (OR = 0.989, 95%CI was 0.951-1.028, P = 0.574) nor bleeding site (OR = 2.009, 95%CI was 0.822-4.907, P = 0.126) was the risk factor of death in patients with SAP combined with AH.

CONCLUSIONS

Both early and late bleeding significantly increased the length of hospital stay and mortality of SAP patients. APACHE II score, infectious necrosis and pseudocyst were the risk factors of AH in SAP patients. Neither bleeding time nor bleeding site was the risk factors of death in patients with SAP combined with AH. However, it still needed to be confirmed by a large sample clinical study.