— Christine M. Kukka, Project Manager, HBV Advocate
Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston report that
patients with hepatitis B-related liver disease fare worse when
hospitalized than patients with hepatitis C- or alcohol-related liver
disease.
In their report, published in the March issue of Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics,
they compared length of stay and death rates in 22,843 hepatitis B
patients, 203,300 hepatitis C patients and 244,383 patients with
alcohol-related liver disease admitted to hospitals, reported in the
2011 U.S. Nationwide Inpatient Sample.
A diagnosis of cirrhosis was lowest among the
hepatitis B patients (69.1%) compared to 83.9% in hepatitis C patients
and 80.9% in alcohol-related liver patients.
In contrast, liver cancer and liver failure were
more common among hepatitis B patients (16.5% and 5.2% respectively)
compared to hepatitis C patients (10.4% and 2.8% respectively) or
alcohol-related liver patients (2.5% and 4.9% respectively).
Hospitalized hepatitis B patients had higher
death rates than the other two patient groups and they had longer
hospital stays. Hepatitis B patients also had more complications such as
kidney failure, respiratory failure and other liver damage that
contributed to their higher mortality rates.
"Patients hospitalized with HBV infection
represent a particularly high-risk group with poor in-hospital outcomes
and increased mortality compared to HCV infection or alcoholic liver
disease," researchers concluded.
Reasons behind the high death rate may include
poor access to health care, delayed diagnosis of the HBV infection and
language or cultural barriers to appropriate medical care.
Source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25786514
http://www.hbvadvocate.org/news/HBJ12.4.htm
Labels: mortality statistics
