Severe hemorrhagic complications in acute necrotizing pancreatitis: a retrospective single-center study / 中华肝胆外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To study the clinical features in patients with acute necrotizing pancreatitis (ANP) complicated by hemorrhage, and to analyze the treatments and their outcomes.Methods:The clinical data of 44 ANP patients with hemorrhage managed at the Department of Pancreas Center, the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from September 2015 to December 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. There were 34 males and 10 females, aged (48.9±12.2) years old. Clinical data were collected on the bleeding sites, bleeding interventions, and treatment outcomes. Follow-up visits were made by outpatients visits or telephone.Results:Of the 44 patients with bleeding, 8 had gastrointestinal bleeding, 31 had intra-abdominal bleeding, and the remaining 5 had mixed bleeding sites. The median interval from onset of ANP to development of hemorrhage was 30.5(20.8, 40.3) d. For the 13 patients with gastrointestinal bleeding and mixed sites of bleeding 4 patients were successfully treated by endoscopically for upper gastrointestinal ulcers, 5 patients were successfully treated by endovascular embolization using digital subtraction angiography (DSA) to detect the sites of bleeding, and 4 patients were successfully treated by surgery. For the 31 patients with intra-abdominal hemorrhage 24 underwent DSA. For the 7 patients who did not undergo DSA, 3 who were hemodynamically stable were treated conservatively, 2 underwent immediate open surgery to stop bleeding within 24 h after surgical debridement of infected pancreatic necrosis, 1 did not undergo DSA because the family members decided to abandon further treatment, and 1 died while preparing for DSA. For the 29 patients who underwent DSA, vascular abnormalities were found in 69.0%(20/29), with splenic artery hemorrhage being the most common. In the 44 patients with bleeding 29.5%(13/44) were examined by endoscopy, and 4 were successfully stopped by endoscopic treatment; 65.9%(29/44) patients were examined by DSA, and 15 patients were successfully treated by intravascular embolization; 14 patients (31.9%) were treated by open surgery and 11 patients were successfully stopped. The mortality rate was 47.7%(21/44), of which 5 patients died from hemorrhagic shock complicated by multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) and 16 patients died from sepsis complicated by MODS. The mortality rate of 55.6%(20/36) in patients with intra-abdominal and mixed sites of bleeding was significantly higher than that of the 12.5%(1/8) in patients with gastrointestinal bleeding ( P=0.048). None of the 23 surviving patients developed recurrence of intra-abdominal and/or gastrointestinal bleeding on follow-up. Conclusion:Major bleeding commonly occurred about 1 month after ANP and it was associated with a higher in-hospital mortality rate. DSA, endoscopy, and open surgery were effective means to achieve hemostasis.