Liver Cirrhosis in Trauma Patients Brings a Large Increase in Morbidity and Mortality

This prospective, case-control study of adults presenting to a single level I trauma center compared outcomes of patient with liver cirrhosis (92) to those without (184). The groups were matched for age, gender, mechanism of injury, vital signs at admission, injury severity score, and clinical injury characteristics.

Compared to noncirrhotics, cirrhotic patients had more than quadruple the rate of in-hospital complications (31.5% vs. 7.1%) and more than triple the mortality rate (20.7% vs. 6.5%). Complications included adult respiratory distress syndrome, pneumonia, sepsis, acute renal failure, deep venous thrombosis, and pulmonary embolism. There was no difference in the rate or type of surgical interventions between the groups. Both the co…