Percutaneous mechanical circulatory support (pMCS) devices are increasingly used in patients with cardiogenic shock as a bridge to recovery or bridge to decision to advanced heart failure therapies. Gastrointestinal bleeding (GIB) is a common complication that can be catastrophic. Because of the paucity of data describing the association of GIB with pMCS, we analyzed this population using the United States National Inpatient Sample database. We performed a retrospective study in patients with pMCS devices who had GIB during the index hospitalization using the National Inpatient Sample. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to determine independent predictors of GIB in these patients. A total of 466,627 patients were included. We observed an overall increase in the incidence of adjusted GIB from 2.9% to 3.5% (p = 0.0025) from 2005 to 2014. In comparison to patients without GIB, those with GIB had significantly higher in-hospital mortality, length of stay, and hospitalization cost. In addition to the usual co-morbid conditions, the presence of small bowel and colonic ischemia, colon cancer, diverticulosis, chronic liver disease, and peptic ulcer disease were noted to be significant predictors of GIB for all (p <0.001). In conclusion, patients with pMCS and GIB have higher in-hospital mortality, longer length of stay, and higher cost of hospitalization. Awareness of patient risk factors for bleeding and gastrointestinal disorders are important before the use of mechanical circulatory support devices because they are associated with a substantially higher risk for bleeding.
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