Thromboembolic Events in Hospitalized Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has been associated with an increased risk of thromboembolic vascular complications. Although studies from the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) examined this association to some extent, sub-stratification for Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) in larger studies is lacking. The aims of this study were to utilize the NIS to determine the prevalence of thromboembolic events in inpatients with IBD compared to in patients without IBD and to explore the inpatient outcomes like morbidity, mortality, and resource utilization in patients with IBD and thromboembolic events as stratified by disease subtype.

This was a retrospective observational study using the NIS 2016. All patients with ICD10-CM codes for IBD were included. Patients with thromboembolic events were identified using diagnostic ICD codes and stratified into 4 categories: (1) Deep vein thrombosis (DVT), (2) Pulmonary embolism (PE), (3) Portal vein thrombosis (PVT), and (4) Mesenteric ischemia, which were then sub-stratified for CD and UC. The primary outcome was the inpatient prevalence and odds of thromboembolic events in patients with IBD compared to without IBD. Secondary outcomes were inpatient morbidity, mortality, resource utilization, colectomy rates, hospital length of stay (LOS), and total hospital costs and charges compared to patients with IBD and thromboembolic events.

A total of 331,950 patients with IBD were identified, of who 12,719 (3.8%) had an associated thromboembolic event. For the primary outcome, after adjusting for confounders, inpatients with IBD had higher adjusted odds of DVT (aOR 1.59, p < 0.001), PE (aOR 1.20, p < 0.001), PVT (aOR 3.18, p < 0.001) and mesenteric ischemia (aOR 2.49, p < 0.001) compared to inpatients without IBD, an observation which was confirmed for both patients with CD and UC. Inpatients with IBD and associated DVT, PE and mesenteric ischemia had higher morbidity, mortality, odds of colectomy, cost, and charges.

Inpatients with IBD have higher odds of associated thromboembolic disorders compared to patients without IBD. Furthermore, inpatients with IBD and thromboembolic events have significantly higher mortality, morbidity, colectomy rates and resource utilization. For these reasons, increased awareness and specialized strategies for the prevention and management of thromboembolic events should be considered in inpatients with IBD.