Impact of obesity on outcomes of paediatric acute pancreatitis based on a national administrative database

Background: Insufficient information is available on the relationship between obesity and outcome of paediatric patients with acute pancreatitis.

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the effect of obesity on outcomes of paediatric patients with acute pancreatitis based on a national administrative database.

Methods: A total of 500 cases in 416 paediatric patients with acute pancreatitis (aged 5-17 years) were referred from 260 hospitals between 2010 and 2012 in Japan. Patients were divided into two groups according to the presence of obesity: with obesity (n = 65) and without obesity (n = 435). Patient data were collected from the administrative database to compare the prevalence of severe acute pancreatitis, in-hospital mortality, length of stay (LOS) and medical costs between the groups.

Results: Both prevalence of severe acute pancreatitis and in-hospital mortality were significantly higher in paediatric patients with obesity than those without (36.9% vs. 16.3% and 3.1% vs. 0.0%; P < 0.001, respectively). Longer LOS and higher medical costs were also observed in paediatric patients with obesity (25.7 vs. 15.2 days, P < 0.001 and 14 169.5 vs. 7457.7 US dollars, P < 0.001, respectively).

Conclusion: This study demonstrated that obesity significantly influenced the outcomes of paediatric acute pancreatitis.