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Hospital readmissions for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma were driven more by sepsis than tumor progression in a national real-world outcomes study.
As researchers reported at the ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, complications of portal hypertension were also an important factor.
Jasneet Randhawa, MD, and other colleagues at Hamilton Medical Center in Dalton, Georgia, analyzed data from the 2022 Nationwide Readmissions Database, which is part of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project. In more than 11,000 patients readmitted within 90 days, multivariable analysis found that increased readmission risk was associated with symptoms of portal hypertension, including ascites (HR 1.23, P<0.001) and varices (HR 1.10, P=0.027).
Sepsis was the most common cause of readmission, accounting for more than 2,000 returns to the hospital. Cancer progression was the second most common cause, and metabolic comorbidities such as diabetes and hyperlipidemia further increased risk.
