Gastroenterologia

Hospital Infection Raises Death Risk for Bowel Patients

Patients hospitalized for treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have a six-fold increased risk of death if they become infected with Clostridium difficile bacteria, a new study finds. IBD includes Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. When people with IBD experience severe symptoms, they often require hospitalization, note the researchers at Imperial College London and St. George's Healthcare NHS Trust in the United Kingdom. They examined data on IBD patients hospitalized between 2002 and 2008 and found that those infected with C. difficile in the hospital were six times more likely to die in the hospital than those not infected with the bacteria. The death rate at 30 days was 25 percent for those with C. difficile and 3 percent for those who were free of the bacteria. The researchers also found that IBD patients with C. difficile stayed in the hospital longer (a median stay of 26 days vs. five days) and were nearly twice as likely to require gastrointestinal surgery.
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