Impact of portal hypertension on clinical outcomes in critically Ill adult patients: A retrospective study

Liver dysfunction is a common complication in critically ill patients, and portal hypertension (PHT) represents a severe hepatic pathological condition closely associated with adverse patient outcomes. This study aims to investigate the impact of PHT on clinical outcomes in critically ill adult patients. Data were extracted from the Medical Information Market for Intensive Care IV database. All critically ill patients admitted to the hospital were included in this study. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess the correlation between PHT and hospital mortality, length of stay in the intensive care unit (LOS-ICU), and length of stay in hospital in critically ill patients, and multiple collinearity checks were performed. Propensity score matching was used to minimize group differences, and subgroup analyses were conducted. A total of 46,804 adult critically ill patients were included in this study. The hospital mortality rate for critically ill patients with PHT was 19%, significantly higher than the 8.8% mortality rate for patients without PHT (P < .05). Critically ill patients with PHT also had longer LOS-ICU and length of stay in hospital and higher total bilirubin levels (P < .05). Furthermore, multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that PHT was significantly associated with hospital mortality (OR: 2.716, 95% CI: 2.330-3.158, P < .001). After propensity score matching, the baseline differences between the 2 groups were significantly reduced, and the results showed that critically ill patients with PHT had worse clinical outcomes. However, the LOS-ICU was not significantly different after matching. PHT is a significant predictor of poor prognosis in critically ill adult patients, necessitating enhanced clinical monitoring and management to improve their clinical outcomes.