• Yusuke Sasabuchi, Hiroki Matsui, Alan K Lefor, Kiyohide Fushimi, and Hideo Yasunaga.
• 1Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Health Economics, School of Public Health, the University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan. 2Department of Surgery, Jichi Medical University, Tochigi, Japan. 3Department of Health Policy and Informatics, Tokyo Medical and Dental University Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
• Crit. Care Med. 2016 Jul 1; 44 (7): e464-9.

ObjectivesThe Surviving Sepsis Campaign Guidelines recommend stress ulcer prophylaxis for patients with severe sepsis who have bleeding risks. Although sepsis has been considered as a risk factor for gastrointestinal bleeding, the effect of stress ulcer prophylaxis has not been studied in patients with severe sepsis. Furthermore, stress ulcer prophylaxis may be associated with an increased risk of hospital-acquired pneumonia or Clostridium difficile infection. The aim of this study was to investigate the risks and benefits of stress ulcer prophylaxis for patients with severe sepsis.DesignRetrospective cohort study.SettingFive hundred twenty-six acute care hospitals in Japan.PatientsA total of 70,862 patients with severe sepsis.InterventionsNone.Measurements And Main ResultsOne-to-one propensity score matching created 15,651 pairs of patients who received stress ulcer prophylaxis within 2 days of admission and those who did not. Patient characteristics were well balanced between the two groups. No significant differences were seen between the stress ulcer prophylaxis group and the control group with regard to gastrointestinal bleeding requiring endoscopic hemostasis (0.6% vs 0.5%; p = 0.208), 30-day mortality (16.4% vs 16.9%; p = 0.249), and Clostridium difficile infection (1.4% vs 1.3%; p = 0.588). The stress ulcer prophylaxis group had a significantly higher proportion of hospital-acquired pneumonia (3.9% vs 3.3%; p = 0.012) compared with the control group.ConclusionsSince the rate of gastrointestinal bleeding requiring endoscopic hemostasis is not different comparing patients with and without stress ulcer prophylaxis, and the increase in hospital-acquired pneumonia is significant, routine stress ulcer prophylaxis for patients with severe sepsis may be unnecessary.

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