Weekend Admission for Acute Cholangitis Does Not Adversely Impact Clinical or Endoscopic Outcomes

Background Acute cholangitis (AC) requires prompt diagnosis and treatment for optimal management. Aims To examine whether a putative “weekend effect” impact outcomes of patients hospitalized for AC. Methods We conducted a retrospective study of patients admitted with AC between 2009 and 2012. After excluding those not meeting Tokyo consensus criteria for AC, the cohort was categorized into weekend (Saturday–Sunday) and weekday (Monday–Friday) hospital admission and endoscopic retrograde cholangiography (ERC) groups. Primary outcome was length of stay (LOS); secondary outcomes included ERC performance, organ failure, and mortality. Groups were compared with Chi-square and t tests; predictors of LOS were assessed with linear regression. Results The cohort consisted of 181 patients (mean age 63.1 years, 62.4 % male). Choledocholithiasis was the most common etiology of AC (29.4 %). Fifty-two patients (28.7 %) were admitted on a weekend and 129 (71.3 %) on a weekday. One hundred forty-one patients (78 %) underwent ERC, of which 120 (85 %) were on a weekday. There were no significant differences in baseline characteristics, LOS, proportion undergoing ERC, time to ERC, organ failure, or mortality between weekend and weekday admission groups. Similarly, there were no significant differences between weekend and weekday ERC groups. In multivariate analyses, international normalized ratio ( p