Trends in Hospitalizations for Chronic Liver Disease-related Liver Failure in the United States, 2005-2014.

Abstract

Current estimates of the population-based disease burden of liver failure or end-stage liver disease (ESLD) are lacking. We investigated recent trends in hospitalizations and in-hospital mortality among patients with ESLD in the United States (US).A retrospective analysis was performed utilizing the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) from 2005 to 2014. We defined ESLD as either decompensated cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), criteria obtained from the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision. Nationwide rates of hospitalization and in-hospital mortality were analyzed from 2005 to 2014.Hospitalization rates for decompensated cirrhosis during this period increased from 105.3/100,000 persons to 159.9/100,000 persons. In terms of HCC, hospitalization rates increased from 13.6/100,000 to 22.1/100,000. In patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)-related decompensated cirrhosis, the hospitalization rate increased from 13.4/100,000 to 32.1/100,000 with an annual incremental increase of 10.6%, a magnitude two-fold higher than other etiologies. The proportion of NAFLD among hospitalizations with ESLD steadily increased from 12.7% to 20.1% for decompensated cirrhosis while the proportion of chronic hepatitis C (HCV) and alcoholic liver disease (ALD) declined (29.3% to 27.6% for HCV; 39.0% to 37.4% for ALD). Although the overall in-hospital mortality rates for ESLD declined during the study, mortality rates for NAFLD-related decompensated cirrhosis showed no significant change.Among etiologies of chronic liver disease, NAFLD demonstrated the fastest growing rate of hospitalizations in non-HCC patients with ESLD in the US. Our study highlights the need for a focus on NAFLD-related hospitalizations and its impact on resource utilization. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

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