Pulmonary Complications of Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome in Trauma Patients. A Matched Analysis From a National Trauma Database.

Abstract

Alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS) is associated with increased occurrence of pneumonia and longer hospital stay. The purpose of the study is to find a national estimate of pulmonary complications in AWS patients using the National Trauma Quality Improvement Program (TQIP) database. We accessed the TQIP database focusing on the calendar years 2013-2016 and included all adult admitted trauma patients. The two groups (AWS and no AWS) were compared on baseline characteristics, injury, comorbidities, and outcomes. We performed univariate analysis followed by propensity matching. Out of 534880 patients who qualified for the study, 6929 (1.29%) patients had developed AWS. The propensity matching balanced the two groups on all the baseline characteristics, injury severity, and comorbidities and created 6929 pairs. One-to-one pair-matched analysis showed a significantly increased occurrence of pneumonia (12% vs 4.3%), acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) (2.7% vs 1%), and sepsis (2.4% vs 1.1%) in AWS patients when compared with the patients without the AWS. The study showed approximately a 3-fold increase in ARDS and pneumonia and a more than two-fold increase in sepsis in AWS patients. Early intervention in high-risk AWS patients may reduce the complications.