importance of paracentesis in SBP

Q: What's the importance of paracentesis in spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP)?

Answer: Determination of mortality

As famously said for lungs: "the sun should never set on a parapneumonic effusion, " similarly, it is true for abdominal paracentesis in SBP, as mortality increases by 3.3 percent/hour of delay in performing a paracentesis in patients with SBP.

Overall, hospitalized patients with SBP who received delayed paracentesis (DP) had a 2.7-fold increased risk of mortality, adjusting for MELD score and renal dysfunction. Diagnostic paracentesis performed less than 12 hours from hospitalization in patients with cirrhosis and ascites has improved short-term survival.  

#procedures

References:

1. Kim JJ, Tsukamoto MM, Mathur AK, et al. Delayed paracentesis is associated with increased in-hospital mortality in patients with spontaneous bacterial peritonitis. Am J Gastroenterol 2014; 109:1436.

2. Sahn SA, Light RW. The sun should never set on a parapneumonic effusion. Chest. 1989 May;95(5):945-7. doi: 10.1378/chest.95.5.945. PMID: 2707086.

3. Harvey JJ, Prentice R, George J. Diagnostic and therapeutic abdominal paracentesis. Med J Aust. 2023 Jan 16;218(1):18-21. doi: 10.5694/mja2.51795. Epub 2022 Nov 30. PMID: 36450339; PMCID: PMC10099762.