Mortality and parenteral nutrition weaning in patients with chronic intestinal failure on home parenteral nutrition: A 30-year retrospective cohort study

Background: Home parenteral nutrition (HPN) is the standard treatment for patients with chronic intestinal failure (CIF). Mortality and weaning rates of these patients differ widely among cohorts; however, these outcomes were often considered independent—rather than competing—events, leading to an upward bias of the retrieved estimates. Objectives: The aim of this retrospective cohort study was to evaluate, evaluating through a competing risk analysis, the rates and predictors of mortality and weaning in CIF patients from an Italian referral center. Methods: All adult patients with CIF receiving > 3 mo HPN from 1985 until 2016 were enrolled. Clinical information was collected from the database of the Intestinal Failure Unit of Torino, Italy. Patients were stratified according to the presence or not of short bowel syndrome (SBS). Results: The cumulative incidences of death and weaning were 27.3% and 32.3% and 39.0% and 33.7% at 5 and 10 y from HPN initiation, respectively. At multivariable competing risk analyses, mortality was predicted by age (sub-distribution hazard ratio [SHR] = 1.65 per 10-y increase; 95% CI, 1.35–2.01), type 3 SBS (SHR = 0.38; 0.15–0.94), small bowel length ≥ 100 cm (SHR = 0.42; 0.22–0.83), and reconstructive surgery (SHR = 0.11; 0.02–0.64) in SBS patients, and by age (SHR = 1.38 per 10-y increase; 1.16–1.64) and presence of stoma (SHR = 0.30; 0.12–0.78) in non-SBS patients. In the same model, weaning was predicted by type 3 SBS (SHR = 6.86; 3.10–15.16), small bowel length ≥ 100 cm (SHR = 3.54; 1.99–6.30), and reconstructive surgery (SHR = 2.86; 1.44–5.71) in SBS patients, and by age (SHR = 0.79 per 10-y increase; 0.66–0.94) and presence of stoma (SHR = 2.64; 1.38–5.07) in non-SBS patients. Conclusions: Surgical procedures strongly affected mortality and weaning risk in CIF patients.