Clinical features of elderly patients with acute pancreatitis aged ≥80 years / 临床肝胆病杂志

ABSTRACT

ObjectiveTo investigate the clinical features of elderly patients with acute pancreatitis (AP) aged ≥80 years. MethodsA retrospective analysis was performed for 3642 patients with pancreatitis who were admitted to Department of Gastroenterology in The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University from January 2013 to December 2019, and according to age, they were divided into young group (aged ＜65 years) with 2955 patients, middle-aged group (aged 65-79 years) with 558 patients, and elderly group (aged ≥80 years) with 129 patients. Related clinical data were collected and analyzed, including sex, age, etiology, predisposing factors, past medical history, disease severity, complication, and clinical outcome. The independent samples one-way ANOVA-test was used for comparison of normally distributed continuous data between groups and the least significant difference t-test was used for comparison within each group; the Mann-Whitney U test was used for comparison of non-normally distributed continuous data between groups; the chi-square test or the Fisher’s exact test was used for comparison of categorical data between groups; the Kruskal-Wallis H test was used for comparison of ordinal categorical variables. ResultsIn the young group, there were 1721 male patients and 1234 female patients; in the middle-aged group, there were 214 male patients and 334 female patients; in the elderly group, there were 48 male patients and 81 female patients; the middle-aged group and the elderly group had a significantly higher proportion of female patients than the young group (62.8% vs 61.6% vs 41.8%, P＜0.05). High-fat diet was the main predisposing factor for all three groups, and compared with the young group, the elderly group had a significantly lower proportion of patients with AP induced by alcohol or high-fat diet+alcohol (P＜0.05). The elderly group had a significantly higher proportion of patients with the etiology of biliary diseases than the middle-aged group and the young group (798% vs 69.2% vs 41.4%, χ2=204.127, P＜0.05), as well as a significantly lower proportion of patients with the etiology of hyperlipidemia, alcohol, or biliary diseases+hyperlipidemia (all P＜0.05). Among the 129 patients in the elderly group, 83 (64.3%) had mild AP, 23 (17.8%) had moderate-severe AP, and 23 (17.8%) had severe AP; there was a significant difference in the constituent ratio of disease severity between the elderly group and the middle-aged/young groups (H=1972.5, P＜005). The elderly group and the middle-aged group had a significantly lower proportion of patients with recurrence than the young group (both P＜0.05). There were no significant differences in local complications between the three groups (all P＞0.05), and as for systemic complications, compared with the young group, the elderly group had a significantly higher proportion of patients with pneumonia (3.9% vs 2.2%, P＜0.05), acute kidney injury (AKI) (6.2% vs 2.5%, P＜0.05), or multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) (7.8% vs 4.0%, P＜0.05). Compared with the middle-aged group and the young group, the elderly group had a significantly lower proportion of cured patients (67.4% vs 76.3% vs 820%, P＜0.05) and a significantly higher proportion of patients with improvement (23.3% vs 147%/12.7%, P＜0.05). The elderly group and the middle-aged group had a significantly higher proportion of patients withdrawn from treatment than the young group (8.5%/5.9% vs 3.4%, P＜0.05). There was 1 death in the elderly group (0.8%), 9 deaths in the middle-aged group (1.6%), and 16 deaths in the young group (0.5%), and there was no significant difference between the three groups (P＞0.05). There were no significant differences in length of hospital stay and hospital costs between the three groups (P＞0.05). ConclusionAP patients aged ≥80 years are mainly female and are often caused by biliary factors, and they are likely to develop the complications such as pneumonia, AKI, and MODS.