Organ failure associated with acute pancreatitis in African-American and Hispanic patients.

Objective: We studied the relationship between acute pancreatitis and organ failure in African-American and Hispanic patients.

Methods: The medical records of 760 (417 African-American and 343 Hispanic) patients aged 19-85 years diagnosed with acute pancreatitis over 15 years were reviewed retrospectively. We abstracted and analyzed data related to demographics, etiology, type of pancreatitis, organ failure and mortality.

Results: Of the 760 patients, 24% had organ failure. Of the 182 patients with organ failure, 125 patients (69%) had multiple organ failure, whereas 57 patients (31%) had single type. Cardiovascular system failure was the common organ dysfunction (28%). Of the 760 patients, 14% died. Patients with organ failure had a higher mortality (40%) compared with those without it (6%) (OR=9.6, 95% CI: 6.0-15.3) (P=0.001). Mortality was higher among those with multiple organ failure (46%) compared with those with single type (25%). Mortality was highest among those with pulmonary failure (57%).

Conclusion: The prevalence of organ failure in our study was slightly higher than the general population (20%). Mortality from single type was higher than that reported in previous studies (8-11%), especially mortality from pulmonary failure (18%). Prevention, early diagnosis and prompt treatment of organ failure may improve the clinical outcome.