Endoscopic intervention and cholecystectomy in pregnant women with acute biliary pancreatitis decrease early readmissions.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Acute biliary pancreatitis (ABP) is associated with increased rates of morbidity in pregnancy. Because there is a paucity of population-based studies evaluating ABP in pregnancy, we sought to investigate clinical outcomes in hospitalized pregnant women on a national level.

METHODS: By using the Nationwide Readmission Database (2011-2014), we identified all women (age ≥18 years) with an index admission for ABP in the United States. Multivariate and propensity-score matched analyses were performed to evaluate the impact of pregnancy on the clinical outcomes of early readmission and severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) in ABP.

RESULTS: There were 7787 hospitalizations for ABP in pregnant women during the study period. The rate of 30-day readmission was 16.26%; 57% of these early readmissions were due to adverse events of ABP. Compared with nonpregnant women with ABP, ERCP (21.1% vs 25.2%; P < .001) and cholecystectomy (52.8% vs 55.2%; P = .02) were performed less frequently during pregnancy. Propensity-score matched analysis revealed an increased risk of 30-day readmissions in pregnancy (odds ratio [OR], 1.96; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.67-2.30), whereas there was no difference in the risk of SAP (OR, 1.09; 95% CI, 0.76-1.57). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that weekend admission (OR, 1.40; 95% CI, 1.10-1.79) and >1 week of hospitalization (OR, 1.75; 95% CI, 1.24-2.48) increased the risk of 30-day readmission, whereas ERCP (OR, 0.40; 95% CI, 0.27-0.57) and cholecystectomy (OR, 0.13; 95% CI, 0.10-0.18) reduced the odds of early readmission in pregnancy.

CONCLUSIONS: Pregnant women with ABP less frequently undergo timely endoscopic biliary decompression and cholecystectomy. These modifiable factors can potentially lower early readmissions in pregnant women.