Korean J Pancreas Biliary Tract.  2017 Oct;22(4):172-178. 10.15279/kpba.2017.22.4.172.

Clinical Outcomes of Hospital-Acquired Acute Cholecystitis in the Elderly

• Bong JH
• Jang DK
• Lee JK
• Ko YJ
• Kim BY
• Park SY
• Chung JW
• Lee SH

• KMID: 2448614
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.15279/kpba.2017.22.4.172

Abstract

BACKGROUND
/AIM: Antimicrobials for nosocomial infections are generally chosen discriminately from community-acquired diseases from concerns for resistance to which the elderly are highly exposed. The elderly are affected frequently by acute cholecystitis (AC), for which appropriate antimicrobial therapy is particularly important. Also, cholecystectomy for elderly patients with co-morbidities is expectedly not as feasible as for uncomplicated young patients. Characteristics of hospital-acquired AC in the elderly patients were investigated in this study.
METHODS
Records of patients over 65 years and older diagnosed with AC between March 2006 and February 2015 were reviewed retrospectively. Hospital-acquired AC was defined as development of AC in patients who were admitted for other disorders. Community-acquired AC was defined as presence of AC at the time of admission. Community-acquired AC group (CG) was used as a control group that was matched for age and sex with a ratio of 1:2.
RESULTS
There were 40 patients in hospital-acquired AC group (HG) and 80 in CG. Demographics did not differ except higher prevalence of underlying illnesses in HG. Necessity to change initial antimicrobials for worsening conditions was more common in HG than in CG (20.0% vs. 2.5%, p < 0.01). Time to recovery was longer in HG (23.3 ± 5.6 days vs. 10.1 ± 0.7 days, p = 0.02). Rate of early cholecystectomy was lower (7.5% vs. 40.0%, p < 0.01) and that of open conversion was higher (20.0% vs. 6.3%, p = 0.02) in HG.
CONCLUSIONS
For the elderly patients with hospital-acquired AC, antimicrobial and surgical management should be performed more meticulously since they showed distinct characteristics.

Keyword

Acute cholecystitis; Gallstones; Nosocomial infections; Antimicrobial resistance; Elderly

MeSH Terms

Aged*
Cholecystectomy
Cholecystitis, Acute*
Cross Infection
Demography
Gallstones
Humans
Prevalence
Retrospective Studies