Hospitalizations for Chronic Pancreatitis in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, USA

Background/Aims: Population-based estimates for chronic pancreatitis (CP) are scarce. We determined incident CP hospitalization rates and the risk of pancreatitis-related readmissions in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, USA. Methods: We used Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4) dataset to identify all unique White and Black Allegheny County residents with incident hospitalization for CP from years 1996-2005. We noted presence of alcoholism codes (from one year before index hospitalization until last contact) and pancreatitis-related readmissions until the third quarter of 2007. Age-, sex-, and race-adjusted (to US 2000 population) rates/100,000 were calculated. Results: 988 unique County residents with incident hospitalization for CP were identified. Of these, 37.6% also received alcoholism codes. Overall hospitalization rate was 7.75/100,000 (95% CI 7.26-8.24), which remained stable throughout the study period. Patients with alcoholism codes were significantly younger (47.2 vs. 58.0 years), more likely to be male (71.4 vs. 36.6%), and Black (38.5 vs. 17.7%). Hospitalization rates were significantly higher (2.4-fold) in Blacks (vs. Whites), particularly for those with alcoholism codes. During follow-up (median 45 months), pancreatitis-related readmissions were common, significantly more so for patients with alcoholism codes. Conclusions: CP hospitalization rates over a one-decade period were stable. Readmissions were highest among patients with a diagnosis of alcoholism.