Stress ulcer prophylaxis in critically ill adult patients with sepsis at risk of gastrointestinal bleeding: a retrospective cohort study

Abstract Background The Surviving Sepsis Campaign Guidelines recommend stress ulcer prophylaxis (SUP) for patients with sepsis who have gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding risks; however, the effect of SUP has not been specially studied in these patients. Aims To determine the effects of SUP versus no prophylaxis on patient‐important outcomes in critically ill adult patients with sepsis who have risk factors for GI bleeding. Methods This retrospective cohort study utilised data from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care III database. We compared those who received SUP with proton‐pump inhibitors or histamine‐2 receptor antagonists for ≥3 days with those who received no prophylaxis. Propensity score matching (PSM) was conducted to make comparisons between groups with similar distributions of study variables. The primary outcome was inhospital mortality. Results A total of 7744 patients were included in the analysis, with 1088 (14.0%) in the non‐SUP group and 6656 (86.0%) in the SUP group. A 1:1 PSM created 866 patients in each cohort. No significant differences were noted between the two groups with regard to inhospital mortality (22.3% vs 20.4%; P = 0.379), GI bleeding (4.7% vs 6.4%; P = 0.172), pneumonia (38.9% vs 36.6%; P = 0.346), Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) (6.4% vs 8.9%; P = 0.0.057) or intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay (LOS) (4.2 days vs 4.6 days; P = 0.394). Conclusions Among critically ill, septic, adult patients at risk for GI bleeding, SUP showed no effect on hospital mortality, the rate of GI bleeding, pneumonia, CDI and ICU LOS.