Acetaminophen Poisoning and Risk of Acute Pancreatitis

The aim of this study was to assess whether acetaminophen poisoning is associated with a higher risk of acute pancreatitis. We conducted a retrospective cohort study by using the longitudinal population-based database of Taiwan’s National Health Insurance (NHI) program between 2000 and 2011. The acetaminophen cohort comprised patients aged 20 years with newly identified acetaminophen poisoning (N1⁄4 2958). The comparison cohort comprised randomly selected patients with no history of acetaminophen poisoning. The acetaminophen and comparison cohorts were frequency matched by age, sex, and index year (N1⁄4 11,832) at a 1:4 ratio. Each patient was followed up from the index date until the date an acute pancreatitis n, MD, Chin-Wang Chia-Hung Kao, MD The risk of acute pancreatitis was 3.11-fold higher in the acetaminophen cohort than in the comparison cohort (11.2 vs 3.61 per 10,000 person-years), with an adjusted hazard ratio of 2.40 (95% confidence interval, 1.29–4.47). The incidence rate was considerably high in patients who were aged 35 to 49 years, men, those who had comorbidities, and within the first year of follow-up. Acetaminophen poisoning is associated with an increased risk of acute pancreatitis. Additional prospective studies are necessary to verify how acetaminophen poisoning affects the risk of acute pancreatitis. (Medicine 94(29):e1195) Abbreviations: CIs = confidence intervals, HRs = hazard ratios, ICD-9-CM = International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification, IRR = incidence rate ratio, NHI = National Health Insurance, NHIRD = National Health Insurance