Patients with Liver Cirrhosis as Frequent Attenders of Emergency Departments

Table 1

Characteristics for cirrhosis-related infrequent attenders and frequent attenders.

Characteristics	Infrequent attender group		Frequent attender group		value
	N = 2429	69.1%	N = 1084	30.9%
Male	1712	70.5	778	71.8	0.44
Age (IQR)	60 (50–70)		58 (47–69)		<0.001
Ischemic heart disease	199	8.2	173	16.0	<0.001
Heart failure	112	4.6	118	10.9	<0.001
Cerebrovascular accidents	74	3.0	59	5.4	<0.001
Peripheral vascular disease	48	2.0	33	3.0	0.051
COPD	1088	44.8	698	64.4	<0.001
Chronic renal disease	411	16.9	324	29.9	<0.001
Malignancy other than HCC	300	12.4	237	21.9	<0.001
HCC	1045	43.0	433	39.9	0.09
Alcoholic liver cirrhosis	571	23.5	378	34.9	<0.001
Liver cirrhosis severity
Child A	796	32.8	275	25.4	<0.001
Child B	1078	44.4	478	44.1	0.88
Child C	555	22.8	331	30.5	<0.001
MELD (IQR)	10.0 (4.2–15.8)		11.1 (4.0–17.8)		0.036
Total ED visits (IQR)	3 (2–5)		13 (9–20)		<0.001
Total admission times (IQR)	3 (2–5)		8 (5–12)		<0.001
Admission through ED (times) (IQR)	2 (1–3)		6 (4–9)		<0.001
Total hospital length of stay for all admissions (IQR)	30 (14–56)		74 (41–123)		<0.001

Child A, B, and C: Child–Pugh classification A, B, and C (child A: good hepatic function; child B: intermediate hepatic function; child C: poor hepatic function); IQR: interquartile range; COPD: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; HCC: hepatocellular carcinoma; MELD: Model for End-Stage Liver Disease; ED: emergency department.