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DOI: 10.1055/s-0042-105432
Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography in octogenarians: A population-based study using the nationwide inpatient sample
Corresponding author
Publication History
submitted 19 November 2015
accepted after revision 07 March 2016
Publication Date:
15 April 2016 (online)
Background and study aims: In the elderly population, there is a growing demand for minimally invasive procedures as the incidence of pancreaticobiliary disease increases with age. Patients with advanced age offer unique challenges for any procedure because they also tend to have a higher rate of baseline comorbidities and malignancy. The aim of the current study was to characterize the mortality and length of stay of octogenarians undergoing inpatient endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP).
Patients and methods: Using the 2007 – 2010 Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS), we performed a retrospective analysis of health-related outcomes among 80- to 89-year-old patients undergoing inpatient ERCP. Surgical patients were excluded.
Results: An estimated 61,322 octogenarians underwent inpatient ERCP in the United States from 2007 to 2010. The mean age was 84.2 (SE 0.02) with 59.5 % (n = 36,460) of the patients being female. A large majority of the patients were white (79. %, n = 41,144) and 63.5 % (n = 38,940) had a comorbidity index of at least 2. The mean length of stay was 7.1 days (SE 0.08) with an in-hospital mortality of 3.1 % (n = 1,919). The primary discharge diagnosis was most often biliary stone disease (55.9 %, n = 34,263). A diagnosis of any infection was recorded in 45.0 % (n = 27,609) of patients. Infection was associated with a significantly higher risk of in-hospital mortality (OR 3.3, 95 % CI 2.6 – 4.2, P < 0.001).
Conclusions: ERCP is now routinely being performed during inpatient admissions for octogenarians with diseases of the biliary tract. The mortality of octogenarians undergoing inpatient ERCP is higher than previous reports and is likely due to superimposed infection during the same admission.
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Introduction
The growing elderly population in the United States has led to escalating healthcare utilization and expenditures. Healthcare expenses associated with the baby boomer generation grew 7.6 % from 2002 to 2010, which was faster than in any other age group [1]. Concomitantly, the demand for ERCP in the elderly has risen secondary to a high incidence of pancreaticobiliary disease in this population [2] [3]. By the time a patient turns 70, the prevalence of gallbladder-related disease in the United States is 33 % for females and 25 % for males [4].
ERCP is now widely available in the United States at both academic and local non-teaching hospitals. Known complications from ERCP include acute pancreatitis, perforation, infection, gastrointestinal bleeding, adverse effect of anesthetic agents, and death [3]. There are few studies available regarding the safety of ERCP in patient aged 80 years and older [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]. These small, single-institution studies suggest that ERCP is safe in the elderly population [10].
The aim of this population-based study is to characterize the mortality and length of stay in octogenarians undergoing inpatient ERCP. To our knowledge, no prior studies have evaluated the in-hospital mortality associated with ERCP in a large cohort of elderly patients. Based on the limited data available, we hypothesize that ERCP is safe to perform on hospitalized octogenarians.
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Patients and methods
Design
We performed a retrospective analysis of a national inpatient administrative database.
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Database
Our institutional reviewed board approved this study using the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) which is part of a family of databases developed and compiled by the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (H-CUP) [Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality/H-CUP (December 2014). http:www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/nisoverview.jsp (February 01 2015)]. The NIS is the largest publicly available all-payer inpatient healthcare database in the United States, yielding estimates of hospital inpatient stays. The NIS approximates a 20 % stratified sample of discharges from US community hospitals, which then allows for national-level estimates by using a weighting coefficient provided by the database [10]. Rehabilitation and long-term acute care hospitals are excluded from the database. Policymakers, insurers, and researchers use NIS data to make national estimates of health care utilization, charges, quality, outcomes, and access. The NIS includes data typically found in discharge abstracts, such as up to 25 diagnosis and procedure codes, patient characteristics, length of stay, and payer source. The NIS data excludes individual identifiers.
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Sample selection
We queried the NIS database for all ERCP procedures performed for any indication from 2007 to 2010 on inpatients whose age was 80 to 89. Admissions that contained complete age, in-hospital mortality data, and length of stay were included in the sample cohort. Patients who also underwent a surgical procedure, such as cholecystectomy, during the same admission were excluded from our study. [Fig. 1] outlines the cohort selection process represented as raw counts, not United States population estimates.


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Study variables
Primary outcomes considered in our study were in-hospital mortality and length of stay in octogenarians who underwent ERCP in the United States from 2007 through 2010. In-hospital mortality only includes deaths during the same admission as the ERCP. These mortality data do not include any deaths post-hospitalization. Length of stay was defined as the number of days from admission to the date of discharge. ERCP procedure codes were defined according to the International Classification of Disease, ninth revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) system. Therapeutic ERCP procedure codes included both endoscopic operations on biliary ducts and the sphincter of Oddi (51.84 – 5.88) as well as endoscopic interventions on the pancreas (51.93, 51.94, 51.97, and 51.98). Diagnostic ERCP procedure codes were as follows: ERC (51.11), ERP (52.13), ERCP (51.10), ERCP with biopsy (51.14, 52.14), ERCP with excision/destruction of a lesion (51.64, 52.21), and ERCP with manometry (51.15). All of the aforementioned procedure codes were combined to represent the total number of ERCP procedures. Discharge diagnoses were categorized as pancreatitis, stone disease, infection, malignancy, and other (Supplementary [Table 1]).
Variable |
Estimated |
Sex, female, n (%) |
36,460 (59.5) |
Age, years, mean (SE) |
84 (0.02) |
Race, n (%)[1] |
|
White |
41,144 (79.9) |
Hispanic |
4,032 (7.8) |
African-American |
2,670 (5.2) |
Other |
3,669 (7.1) |
More than 2 comorbidities, n (%)[2] |
38,940 (63.5) |
Alcohol abuse, n (%) |
534 (0.9) |
Study period, n (%) |
|
2007 |
14,996 (24.5) |
2008 |
15,632 (25.5) |
2009 |
15,220 (24.8) |
2010 |
15,473 (25.2) |
Hospital region, n (%) |
|
Northeast |
15,567 (25.4) |
Midwest |
14,539 (23.7) |
South |
19,140 (31.2) |
West |
12,076 (19.7) |
Urban hospital, n (%) |
56,889 (93.1) |
Hospital teaching, n (%) |
30,188 (49.4) |
Primary payer, n (%)[3] |
|
Medicare |
56,182 (91.7) |
Medicaid |
973 (1.6) |
Private insurance |
3,376 (5.5) |
Self-pay, no charge, other |
759 (1.2) |
Admission source, n (%) |
|
Routine |
6,814 (26.3) |
Emergency department |
16,937 (65.5) |
Other facility[4] |
2,123 (8.2) |
Admission type, n (%) |
|
Emergency |
34,600 (64.5) |
Urgent |
12,284 (22.9) |
Elective |
6,700 (12.5) |
Other |
39 (0.07) |
Hospital bed size, n (%) |
|
Small |
5,366 (8.8) |
Medium |
14,331 (23.5) |
Large |
41,382 (67.8) |
Length of stay, days, mean (SE) |
7.1 (0.08) |
In-hospital mortality, n (%) |
1,919 (3.13) |
1 Unknown race, n = 1,964
2 Defined by Elixhauser comorbidity algorithm [13] [14]
3 Unknown, n = 6
4 Another hospital, long-term care facility, or skilled nursing facility.
Characteristics for patients and hospitals were then extracted from the dataset such as sex, race, age, primary payer, hospital region, teaching status of hospital, hospital size, urban or rural institution, year of admission, source of admission, and number of comorbidities. Hospital size is defined by the NIS and is specific to region, location, and teaching status; for example, a large urban teaching hospital in the south has more than 450 beds [Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality/H-CUP (December 2014). http://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/nisoverview.jsp (February 01 2015)]. Each patient was then assigned a comorbidity score based on the Elixhauser comorbidity algorithm using validated H-CUP comorbidity software [Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality/H-CUP (October 2011). http://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/toolssoftware/comorbidity.jsp (May 01 2015), [11] [12].
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Statistical Analysis
All analysis was performed in SAS Version 9.4 (Cary, NC). Because NIS implements a stratified, weighted, sampling strategy, all data are presented as national estimates. Appropriate SAS procedures, such as PROC SURVEYMEANS, PROC SURVEYFREQ, and PROC SURVEYLOGISTIC, were used to accurately incorporate the sampling strategy of NIS into national estimates. Continuous variables were summarized using means and standard errors, and nominal variables were summarized using counts and percentages. To determine characteristics associated with mortality, univariate and multi-variable logistic regression were used. Variables with overall p-values less than 0.10 were retained in the multi-variable model.
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#
Results
An estimated 61,322 octogenarians underwent inpatient ERCP in the United States from 2007 to 2010. The baseline characteristics of the patients and hospitals are shown in [Table 1]. The mean age at time of admission was 84.2 (SE 0.02) with 59.5 % (n = 36,460) of the patients being female. A large majority of the patients were white (79. %, n = 41,144) and 63.5 % (n = 38,940) had a comorbidity index of at least 2. ERCP was usually performed at large (67.7 %, n = 41,382), urban (93.1 %, n = 56,889) institutions. The procedures were equally distributed between teaching (50.6 %) and non-teaching hospitals (49.4 %). Most of the admissions were classified as emergent (64.5 %, n = 34,600). Medicare was the leading payer source (91.7 %, n = 56,182).
The mean length of stay (LOS) was 7.1 days (SE 0.08). The most common discharge diagnosis was pancreaticobiliary stone disease in 55.9 % ([Table 2]). The overall in-hospital mortality for octogenarians who had an ERCP performed during the admission was 3.1 % (n = 1,919). Risk factors for in-hospital mortality were evaluated. Odds ratio (OR) estimates were calculated for the variables listed in [Table 3]. Any infection (OR 3.3, 95 % CI 2.6 – 4.2, P < 0.001), presence of more than 2 comorbidities (OR 2.4, 95 % CI 1.9 – 3.2, P < 0.001), and malignancy (OR 1.6, 95 %CI 1.6 – 2.0, P < 0.001) were all associated with higher risk of in-hospital mortality. Age, sex, ethnicity, and hospital characteristics (size, region, rural or urban) were not associated with increased mortality. In multivariate analysis, octogenarians with any infection had a significantly higher risk of in-hospital mortality (OR 3.1, 95 % CI 2.5 – 4.0, P < 0.001). The presence of more than 2 more comorbidities, malignancy, and increasing age were also associated with slightly higher in-hospital mortality in the multivariate analysis.
Estimated |
|
Discharge diagnosis[1] |
N (%) |
Pancreaticobiliary stone disease |
34,263 (55.9) |
Malignancy |
18,272 (29.8) |
Infection |
27,609 (45.0) |
Pancreatitis |
5,765 (9.4) |
1 See Appendix [Supplemental Table 1] for ICD-9 codes.
Univariate analysis |
Multiple variable analysis |
|||||||
Variable |
OR |
95 % CI Lower |
95 % CI Upper |
p-value |
OR |
95 % CI Lower |
95 % CI Upper |
P value |
Age[1] |
1.05 |
0.997 |
1.096 |
0.0674 |
1.050 |
1.001 |
1.101 |
0.0463 |
Male sex |
1.207 |
0.984 |
1.481 |
0.0717 |
0.870 |
0.706 |
1.071 |
0.1879 |
More than 2 comorbidities[2] |
2.447 |
1.868 |
3.206 |
< 0.001 |
1.446 |
1.285 |
1.626 |
< 0.001 |
Race, non-white |
1.174 |
0.911 |
1.513 |
0.2145 |
||||
Hospital size |
||||||||
Small |
ref |
|||||||
Medium |
1.162 |
0.731 |
1.845 |
1.162 |
||||
Large |
1.218 |
0.791 |
1.874 |
0.426 |
||||
Non-teaching hospital |
0.772 |
0.631 |
0.944 |
0.0117 |
0.787 |
0.641 |
0.966 |
0.0218 |
Region |
||||||||
West |
ref |
|||||||
Northeast |
0.993 |
0.736 |
1.340 |
0.9646 |
||||
Midwest |
0.825 |
0.611 |
1.114 |
0.2086 |
||||
South |
0.942 |
0.720 |
1.232 |
0.6618 |
||||
Rural hospital |
1.002 |
0.706 |
1.421 |
0.9932 |
||||
Admission source, emergency department |
0.954 |
0.669 |
1.361 |
0.7952 |
||||
Admission type |
||||||||
Urgent or emergent |
ref |
ref |
||||||
Elective |
0.642 |
0.423 |
0.976 |
0.038 |
0.748 |
0.483 |
1.157 |
0.1919 |
Any stone disease |
0.533 |
0.433 |
0.656 |
< 0.001 |
0.571 |
0.441 |
0.739 |
< 0.001 |
Any infection |
3.329 |
2.649 |
4.184 |
< 0.001 |
3.105 |
2.523 |
4.070 |
< 0.001 |
Any malignancy |
1.616 |
1.320 |
1.977 |
< 0.001 |
1.28 |
1.005 |
1.629 |
0.00453 |
Any pancreatitis |
0.751 |
0.571 |
0.988 |
0.0405 |
0.960 |
0.723 |
1.274 |
0.7771 |
1 For each additional year.
2 Defined by Elixhauser comorbidity algorithm [13] [14]
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Discussion
Our study determined that the in-hospital mortality for octogenarians who undergo inpatient ERCP is 3.1 %. To our knowledge, this is the first large-scale population-based study to examine mortality and length of stay in octogenarians undergoing inpatient ERCP. Because this analysis used a nationally representative sample of octogenarian patients who underwent inpatient ERCP in the community setting, these findings can be generalized to the overall US octogenarian population.
Prior reports would suggest that ERCP is safe and without increased mortality or complication rates in octogenarians [3] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]. In one retrospective review comparing 102 patients older than age 80 to a younger cohort, ERCP was both safe and efficacious without an increase in complication rates [5]. Although ERCP procedure time was usually longer and the case technically more challenging in octogenarians, ERCP was not found to have higher complication rates in this elderly cohort [6]. In fact, rates of post-ERCP infection and pancreatitis were lower in octogenarians.
Generally, all patients who undergo ERCP procedures have a mortality of less than 0.5 % [13] [14] [15]. Prior small studies focusing on the very elderly such as octogenarians found a mortality rate of 0 – 1 % [3] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [16]. The mortality of octogenarians in our study was over 3 %. Almost half of the hospitalized octogenarians we evaluated had an infection during the same hospitalization at the time of ERCP and one-third had a diagnosed malignancy. Infection and malignancy includes both biliary and non-biliary etiologies such as pneumonia and lymphoma. Given concern for selection bias using an administrative dataset, we did not perform a subset analysis of patients diagnosed with cholangitis. However, cholangitis is likely a significant factor in increased in-hospital morbidity and mortality. Many octogenarians also had numerous comorbidities and the presence of more than 2 comorbidities was associated with higher inpatient mortality.
Accordingly, the finding of higher mortality in octogenarians is best explained by the increased rates of infections and malignancy in this population with baseline comorbidities. Although, the mortality rate in this study for octogenarians undergoing inpatient ERCP is higher than in previous reports, the procedure remains necessary and efficacious for many individuals. With careful patient selection and high-quality periprocedural care, we can likely minimize risks associated with ERCP in octogenarians. We recommend that patients and families undergo appropriate informed consent including information on inpatient mortality before any inpatient ERCP.
The average length of stay for octogenarians undergoing ERCP was 7.1 days in our study. This is comparable to the reported length of stay for all age groups undergoing inpatient ERCP of 6.9 – 7.8 days [15]. Our large sample size should mitigate the effects of individual hospital characteristics on length of stay such as a lower procedure volume or fewer critical care resources.
Our study has a few limitations. The NIS database allows for only the assessment of inpatient mortality, morbidity, and length of stay. Death after discharge or complications requiring readmission cannot be tracked or evaluated because the NIS data are only from inpatient hospitalizations and contains no individual identifiers. We cannot comment on the mortality in outpatient octogenarians who undergo ERCP as this study only utilized hospitalized patients. All patients who underwent any surgical procedure during the same admission were excluded from the analysis in an attempt to limit confounders on inpatient mortality in this very elderly cohort. By excluding surgical patients, we may be eliminating some healthier patients that were surgical candidates and thus potentially would have lowered the mortality. Conversely, we are also excluding patients that had potential ERCP morbidities such as perforation that would have required urgent surgery and likely had a higher mortality.
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Conclusion
In this large-scale population-based study of inpatient octogenarians undergoing ERCP, the rate of in-hospital mortality was 3.1 % and the length of stay was 7.1 days. Although the length of stay was comparable to all age groups, the mortality was higher than in previous reports and is attributable to concomitant infection and malignancy in this elderly cohort with baseline comorbidities.
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Competing interests: None
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References
- 1 Lasman D, Hartman M, Washington B et al. US Health spending trends by age and gender: selected years 2002 – 2010. Health Affairs 2014; 33: 815-822
- 2 Harness JK, Strodel WE, Talsma SE. Symptomatic biliary tract disease in the elderly patient. The American Surgeon 1986; 56: 586-590
- 3 Behlül B, Ayfer S, Vatansever S et al. Safety of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography in patients 80 years of age and older. Przeglad Gastroenterologiczny 2014; 9: 227-231
- 4 Everhart JE, Khare M, Hill M et al. Prevalence and ethnic differences in gallbladder disease in the United States. Gastroenterology 1999; 117: 632-639
- 5 Ali M, Ward G, Staley D et al. A retrospective study of the safety and efficacy of ERCP in octogenarians. Digestive Diseases and Sciences 2011; 56: 586-590
- 6 Lukens FJ, Howell DA, Upender S et al. ERCP in the very elderly; outcomes among patients older than eighty. Dig Dis Sci 2010; 55: 847-851
- 7 Fritz E, Kirchgatterer A, Hubner D et al. ERCP is safe and effective in patients 80 years of age and older compared with younger patients. Gastrointest Endosc 2006; 64: 899-905
- 8 Kim JE, Cha BH, Lee SH et al. Safety and efficacy of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography in very elderly patients. Korean J Gastroenterol 2011; 57: 237-242
- 9 Cho DH, Park GT, Oh JE et al. A single institution’s experience of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreaticography in the elderly patients: outcomes, safety, and complications. Korean J Gastroenterol 2011; 58: 88-92
- 10 Katsinelos P, Kountouras J, Chatzimavroudis G et al. Outpatient therapeutic endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography is safe in patients aged 80 years and older. Endoscopy 2011; 43: 128-133
- 11 Elixhauser A, Steiner C, Harris DR et al. Comorbidity measures for use with administrative data. Med Care 1998; 36: 8-27
- 12 Grendar J, Shaheen AA, Myers RP et al. Predicting in-hospital mortality in patients undergoing complex gastrointestinal surgery: determining the optimal risk adjustment method. Arch Surg 2012; 147: 126-135
- 13 Varadarajulu S, Kilgore ML, Wilcox CM et al. Relationship among hospital ERCP volume, length of stay, and technical outcomes. Gastrointest Endosc 2006; 64: 338-347
- 14 Masci E, Toti G, Mariani A et al. Complications of diagnostic and therapeutic ERCP: a prospective multicenter study. Am J Gastroenterol 2001; 96: 417-423
- 15 Vandervoort J, Soetikno RM, Tham TC et al. Risk factors for complications after performance of ERCP. Gastrointest Endosc 2002; 56: 652-656
- 16 Yun DY, Han J, Oh JS et al. Is endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography safe ub oatuebts 90 years of age and older?. Gut Liver 2014; 8: 552-556
Corresponding author
-
References
- 1 Lasman D, Hartman M, Washington B et al. US Health spending trends by age and gender: selected years 2002 – 2010. Health Affairs 2014; 33: 815-822
- 2 Harness JK, Strodel WE, Talsma SE. Symptomatic biliary tract disease in the elderly patient. The American Surgeon 1986; 56: 586-590
- 3 Behlül B, Ayfer S, Vatansever S et al. Safety of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography in patients 80 years of age and older. Przeglad Gastroenterologiczny 2014; 9: 227-231
- 4 Everhart JE, Khare M, Hill M et al. Prevalence and ethnic differences in gallbladder disease in the United States. Gastroenterology 1999; 117: 632-639
- 5 Ali M, Ward G, Staley D et al. A retrospective study of the safety and efficacy of ERCP in octogenarians. Digestive Diseases and Sciences 2011; 56: 586-590
- 6 Lukens FJ, Howell DA, Upender S et al. ERCP in the very elderly; outcomes among patients older than eighty. Dig Dis Sci 2010; 55: 847-851
- 7 Fritz E, Kirchgatterer A, Hubner D et al. ERCP is safe and effective in patients 80 years of age and older compared with younger patients. Gastrointest Endosc 2006; 64: 899-905
- 8 Kim JE, Cha BH, Lee SH et al. Safety and efficacy of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography in very elderly patients. Korean J Gastroenterol 2011; 57: 237-242
- 9 Cho DH, Park GT, Oh JE et al. A single institution’s experience of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreaticography in the elderly patients: outcomes, safety, and complications. Korean J Gastroenterol 2011; 58: 88-92
- 10 Katsinelos P, Kountouras J, Chatzimavroudis G et al. Outpatient therapeutic endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography is safe in patients aged 80 years and older. Endoscopy 2011; 43: 128-133
- 11 Elixhauser A, Steiner C, Harris DR et al. Comorbidity measures for use with administrative data. Med Care 1998; 36: 8-27
- 12 Grendar J, Shaheen AA, Myers RP et al. Predicting in-hospital mortality in patients undergoing complex gastrointestinal surgery: determining the optimal risk adjustment method. Arch Surg 2012; 147: 126-135
- 13 Varadarajulu S, Kilgore ML, Wilcox CM et al. Relationship among hospital ERCP volume, length of stay, and technical outcomes. Gastrointest Endosc 2006; 64: 338-347
- 14 Masci E, Toti G, Mariani A et al. Complications of diagnostic and therapeutic ERCP: a prospective multicenter study. Am J Gastroenterol 2001; 96: 417-423
- 15 Vandervoort J, Soetikno RM, Tham TC et al. Risk factors for complications after performance of ERCP. Gastrointest Endosc 2002; 56: 652-656
- 16 Yun DY, Han J, Oh JS et al. Is endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography safe ub oatuebts 90 years of age and older?. Gut Liver 2014; 8: 552-556

