Abstract
Objectives: To evaluate the impact of weekend admission on the outcome of patients with acute variceal hemorrhage (AVH)
Design: Retrospective study
Setting: Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, King Saud University, KSA
Main Outcome Measures: AVH, weekend admission and clinical outcome
Subjects: Nine hundred and thirty-seven admitted during the period 1st January 2005 to 31st July 2013 and documented to have AVH. The selected patients were divided into two groups based on the admission day (weekday or weekend admission). The data regarding patients characteristics and outcome in both the groups were retrieved from medical records and compared by using c2 test / Fisher's exact and student T-test.
Results: Weekday admissions included 685 patients, while the weekend group comprised of 252 patients. The demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics of patients admitted with AVH in both the groups were comparable. Statistically, there was no significant difference in the need for blood transfusion (46% versus 48%, p = 0.5868), and surgical intervention (5.4 % versus 4.7 %; p = 0.6595) between the groups. There was a little, but statistically significant delay in endoscopic intervention in the weekend group (7.56 +/- 7.8 hours versus 9 +/- 2.32; p = < 0.0001). However, this delay did not lead to adverse outcome for patients (mortality rate 6.8% versus 5.25%; p = 0.389).
Conclusions: The weekend admissions were not associated with increased mortality in patients with AVH. Moreover, the length of hospital stay, need for blood transfusion, and rate of surgical intervention were similar in weekdays and weekend admissions.