The 30-Days readmission among hepatic encephalopathy patients and the associated factors: An experience of a tertiary care hospital in Karachi Pakistan.

Objective: To determine the 30-days readmission rate among hepatic encephalopathy patients and its associated factors among patients admitted in a tertiary care hospital. Study Design: Prospective Cohort study. Setting: Department of Gastroenterology, Liaquat National Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan. Period: July 2023 to June 2024. Methods: Patients of cirrhosis with hepatic encephalopathy discharged from hospital were followed up in out-patient and inpatient department as per the hospital protocol. Data were entered into SPSS version 26 to perform statistical analysis. Results: Total 215 patients were included into the study. Mean age of patients was 55.40 ± 11.05 years and most of the patients were males (59.3%). Incidence of 30 day readmission was 15.3%. Causes of readmission were constipation (51.5%), infection (30.3%), electrolyte imbalance (12.1%) and renal failure (6.1%). Presence of hypertension and diabetes was associated with increased risk of readmission. Increasing potassium levels at the time of discharge were also found to be associated with increased readmission rate. Conclusion: The present study analyzed that main cause of 30 days readmissions were incidence of constipation and infection after discharge. Moreover, the study also showed that patients with comorbidity of hypertension and diabetes were likely to readmit.