Increased Mortality in a Nationwide Study of Gastrointestinal Hospitalizations in the United States During the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic

Background The impact of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on patients with acute gastrointestinal (GI) presentations including acute pancreatitis, diverticulitis, and GI bleeding, requiring hospitalization, has not been fully characterized at the population level in the United States. Aims We used the National Inpatient Sample to describe inpatient gastroenterology outcomes in the United States during the first year of the pandemic (2020), using 2018 and 2019 as comparator years. Methods Using the National Inpatient Sample, we explored year-to-year and month-to-month trends in hospitalizations, length of stay, and inpatient mortality for GI presentations, including luminal, biliary, infectious, inflammatory, and pancreatic diseases, with regression modeling. Relative change was used to compare time periods. Results We observed significantly lower rates of hospitalization for most acute GI conditions in 2020 relative to 2019. Despite this, we noted an increase in all-cause mortality (0.9% in 2019 and 1.1% in 2020, p<0.001) and hospital costs for patients hospitalized with acute presentations of GI-related conditions in 2020 relative to 2019. Importantly, we also observed increased mortality among COVID-19-positive patients who were hospitalized for acute pancreatitis (OR 2.56; 95% CI 1.37-6.53), variceal upper GI bleeding (OR 2.88; 95% CI 1.29-3.84), ulcerative colitis (OR 4.50; 95% CI 1.14-7.74), and acute cholangitis (OR 2.43; 95% CI 1.14-4.93). In 2020, the lowest number of admissions for all conditions occurred in April, coinciding with lockdowns ordered by most state governments. Conclusions Acute GI-related hospitalizations, in general, decreased in 2020 but this was associated with higher hospital costs and all-cause mortality increased compared with the pre-pandemic period.