The impact of different infectious complications on mortality of hospitalized patients with liver cirrhosis.

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Bacterial infections are common complications in patients with cirrhosis and are associated with poor prognosis. There are no studies that analyze the impact of different infectious complications in the mortality of these patients, so we aimed to perform this evaluation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a case-control study in adult patients with cirrhosis with a follow-up period of one year. We recorded demographic data, prognostic scales, infectious complications and mortality at 30, 90 and 365 days. For the survival analysis, Kaplan-Meyer survival curve was performed and hazard ratios were calculated with 95% confidence intervals by Cox-regression in univariate and multivariate models. For the comparison between groups the Chi squared test, Fisher's exact test and Mann-Whitney U test were performed. RESULTS: We included 500 patients. Median age was 58 years, predominant sex was woman (52%) and the most common infections were urinary tract infections (35%), pneumonia (28.2%) and spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) (18%). From the patients, 40.4% were CTP score C and median MELD score was 15. In the univariate analysis, infections in general, SBP, pneumonia and central nervous system (CNS) infections had an increased mortality at the three follow up periods, however in the multivariate analysis with the prognostic scales, only pneumonia (HR 2.03, CI 95%[1.06-3.86]) and CNS infections (HR 4.84, CI 95%[1.38-16.93]) remained with increased mortality. CONCLUSIONS: Some infectious complications, as pneumonia and CNS infections, increase mortality in hospitalized patients with cirrhosis, regardless of the severity of liver disease.

Increased Mortality from Extrapancreatic Infections in Hospitalized Patients with Acute Pancreatitis.

Nosocomial extrapancreatic infections in patients with acute pancreatitis (AP) are associated with a higher mortality even after adjusting the risk for the severity of the pancreatitis. The aim of this study was to describe the clinical features of hospitalized patients with AP who died during their hospitalization and to evaluate risk factors associated with mortality. We performed a descriptive study of the clinical features of adult patients who died from AP during their hospitalization and a case control study with a paired group of patients that survived AP during a 10-year period. Data of interest were collected from the medical records and are presented with appropriate measures of central tendency and dispersion. For the case control study, the primary outcome evaluated was death, and to evaluate associated clinical features and determine differences between groups, we performed the χ 2 or Fisher's exact tests for categorical variables and the Student t-test or Mann-Whitney U test for continuous variables as appropriate. We found 48 patients with acute pancreatitis who died within the period of the study during hospitalization; from these, 50% were men, mean age was 53.2 years, and the most common etiology was biliary obstruction by gallstones in 45.8%. The global mortality rate was of 2.5%. A total of 43.7% patients had infected pancreatic necrosis, and in 58.3%, some extrapancreatic infection was documented, being the most common urinary tract infection in 50%, bacteremia in 50% and pneumonia in 33.3%. Clinical features associated with mortality were the presence of organ failure (p < 0.001), nosocomial complications (p < 0.001), infected necrosis (p < 0.001), and extrapancreatic infections (p = 0.002). From the different extrapancreatic infections, only bacteremia (p = 0.001) and pneumonia (p = 0.011) were associated with higher mortality. In conclusion, extrapancreatic infections are associated with increased mortality among hospitalized patients with acute pancreatitis, in particular, bacteremia and pneumonia with an isolated pathogen.

Duodenal Recurrence of Fibrolamellar Carcinoma 12 Years After Partial Hepatectomy and Adjuvant Chemotherapy.

Fibrolamellar carcinoma (FLC) has a better prognosis than hepatocellular carcinoma; however, it is a highly recurrent disease. A 17-year-old woman presented with FLC with regional disease at the right lobe of the liver and underwent right hepatic lobe resection plus adjuvant chemotherapy with interferon α and adriamycin. She then presented at age 29 years with anemia. Endoscopy revealed an exofitic lesion in the duodenum, which was a recurrence of FLC. The patient underwent duodenal partial resection of a metastatic FLC tumor with disease-free edges and without neural or lymphoid-vascular involvement, a nonreported site of recurrence.