Prediction of recurrent emergency department visits among patients with crohn’s disease: A retrospective study

Hussein Mahajna*, Yiftach Barash, Bella Ungar, Shelly Soffer, Ahmad Albshesh, Asaf Levartovsky, Shomron Ben-Horin, Eyal Klang, Uri Kopylov

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Patients with Crohn’s disease (CD) are frequently subject to symptoms causing them to seek medical care in emergency departments (ED). Recurrent ED visits are frequent after initial discharge. We aimed to identify the characteristics of patients with Crohn’s who tend to have recurrent visits to the ED. We created an electronic data repository of all patients with inflammatory bowel diseases who visited the ED in our tertiary medical center during the period 2012–2018. For this study, we retrieved consecutive Crohn’s patients who presented with CD-related symptoms to the ED and were eventually discharged. Patients who returned to the ED in 7 and 30 days were compared with those who did not. Overall, 2299 patients visited our ED with complaints related to Crohn’s disease exacerbation or complication. A total of 1259 (60% of the adult patients) were admitted for hospitalization. Of the 632 (33%) who were discharged from the ED, 53 (8.4%) and 110 (17.4%) re-visited the ED, in 7 and 30 days from discharge, respectively. In multivariable analysis, tachycardia (odds ratio (OR) = 2.19, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.11–4.33, p value = 0.02), elevated alkaline phosphatase (OR = 2.09, 95% CI: 1.07–4.07, p value = 0.02), and hyponatremia (OR = 2.52, 95% CI: 1.24–5.10, p value = 0.01) were associated with revisiting the ED within 7 days. Tachycardia (OR 2.88 (95% CI 1.33–6.2)), anemia (OR 2.44 (95% CI 1.24–4.8)), and elevated alkaline phosphatase (OR 2.68 (95% CI 1.25–5.78)) were independently associated with ED returns in 30 days. Knowing these risk factors may assist in minimizing the burden of recurrent ED visits among patients with CD.

Original languageEnglish
Article number3651
Pages (from-to)1-9
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Clinical Medicine
Volume9
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2020

Keywords

  • Crohn’s disease
  • Emergency department
  • Recurrent visits

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Prediction of recurrent emergency department visits among patients with crohn’s disease: A retrospective study'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this