Factors related to hospital stay of patients with pulmonary thromboembolism

Abstract

Pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) has important economic burden related, fundamentally, to the costs of hospital admission. Our objective were to analyze what factors can influence the hospital stay of patients with PTE. Retrospective cohort study of patients with PTE (January 2007 - May 2016). A descriptive and comparative analysis was performed according to the hospital stay and a multivariate analysis of the factors related to it. We included 430 patients (mean age: 63.7 ± 16.5 years, 55.3% men). Median hospital stay: 12 days (IQR: 3-80). In the univariate analysis the stay was longer in: Older patients, higher score of the PESI scale, Obese (BMI> 30), with surgery as a risk factor, with absence of previous PTE, presence of syncope, lower PaO2, higher levels of glycemia, presence of pahological EKG or thorax X-Ray (XR), severity in the affectation of angioCT, pathological echocardiography, appearance of hemorrhagic and non-hemorrhagic complications during admission, need for transfusion or admission to the ICU. Variables that were associated, independently, with a longer hospital stay were: age (OR: 1.01, 95% CI: 1-1.02), obesity (OR: 1.88: 95% CI: 1.12-3, 14), absence of previous PET (OR: 3.09, 95% CI: 1.17-8.16), PaO2 (OR: 0.98, 95% CI: 0.97-1), presence of pathological XR (OR: 1.49, 95% CI: 0.98-2.27), admission to the ICU (OR: 1.68, 95% CI: 1.03-2.73) and, presence of complications, both, haemorrhagic (OR: 2.20, 95% CI: 1.09-4.43) and non-haemorrhagic (OR: 2.80, 95% CI: 1.70-4.62), during hospitalization. In patients with PTE, several epidemiological characteristics, severity at presentation variables and, above all, evolution variables were associated with longer stays.