One third of patients with decompensated cirrhosis are readmitted within 30 days of discharge. The use of simple risk scoring model with high generalizability, based on demographics, clinical features and interventions can bring refinement to the prediction of 30-day readmission in high risk patients. Mumtaz readmission risk score highlights the need for targeted interventions in order to decrease rates of readmission within this population. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Background and study aims Incidence of Post-ERCP pancreatitis (PEP) ranges from 1 % to 10 % in unselected patients and as high as 25 % to 30 % in high-risk patients. Rectal indomethacin administered before or immediately after an ERCP and prophylactic pancreatic duct stent placement (PPS) are associated with a reduction in the incidence of PEP. We sought to investigate the utilization rate for prophylactic rectal indomethacin and PPS in average and high-risk patients undergoing ERCP between 2014 and 2019. Patients and methods We performed a retrospective analysis in the IBM Explorys database, a pooled, national de-identified clinical database of over 72 million unique patients from 26 health care networks and 300 hospitals across the United States from 2014 to 2019. Average and high-risk patients undergoing ERCP were identified using Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT) diagnosis codes. PEP was defined by the presence of SNOMED CT diagnosis of acute pancreatitis and an inpatient admission within 5 days of an ERCP procedure. Results Out of 31,050 adults who had undergone ERCP from 2014 to 2019, only 10,500 individuals (33.8 %) had a PEP prophylaxis. Rectal indomethacin and PPS accounted for 82.4 % and 12.9 % respectively. Individuals with three risk factors had the highest PEP rates followed by individuals with two risk factors. Conclusions Only one-third of all patients undergoing ERCP received prophylaxis in the form of rectal indothemacin and/or PPS in this large population-based data. Increased implementation of prophylactic use is needed in patients undergoing ERCP as supported by current guidelines.

Background: Comorbidities of tobacco and alcohol abuse and obesity are major risk factors for colon carcinogenesis. These risk factors are considered the most prevalent modifiable risk factors linked to malignancies including colorectal cancer (CRC) in both high-and low-income countries. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between number of comorbidities and age of CRC diagnosis in US male veteran population. Methods: A retrospective single-center study using chart review and the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) codes to identify patients with a diagnosis of CRC and comorbidities of tobacco abuse, alcohol abuse, hypertension (HTN), diabetes mellitus (DM) and chronic kidney disease (CKD). The primary aim was to study effect of these comorbidities on age of CRC diagnosis. Univariable and then multivariable logistic regression models were fit to age at diagnosis for each patient variable. Results: A total of 362 patients were included in the study. The mean age of CRC diagnosis was 66.8. Eighty percent were Caucasians, and 20% were African Americans. African Americans were diagnosed with CRC 3.8 years younger compared to Caucasians (P = 0.01). Controlling for other variables in the multivariable model, age at CRC diagnosis was significantly lower for African Americans and for patients with higher total counts for tobacco and alcohol abuse and obesity. HTN, DM and CKD were not associated with a lower age of CRC diagnosis. Conclusions: Tobacco and alcohol abuse and obesity have negative cumulative effect on age of CRC diagnosis in US male veteran population. Patients with increasing number of these comorbidities are associated with significantly lower age of CRC diagnosis. It is important to identify veterans with these comorbidities and encourage CRC screening.

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