Despite increase in admissions, inpatient mortality improved from 2003 to 2012
WEDNESDAY, Dec. 13, 2017 (HealthDay News) — Hospital admissions of patients with Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) and accompanying acute kidney injury (AKI) are increasing, according to a study published online Dec. 4 in the Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
Paris Charilaou, M.D., from Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, N.J., and colleagues used data from the National Inpatient Sample (2003 to 2012; 2,859,599 patients) to estimate the effect of AKI on inpatient mortality of CDI patients.
The researchers found that the AKI prevalence was 22 percent. The overall mortality rate was 8.4 percent, but was 18.2 percent among AKI patients. When propensity matching patients, AKI increased mortality by 86 percent. From 2003 to 2012, CDI incidence increased by 1.8, while the rate of AKI increased from 12.6 to 28.8 percent. Hospitalizations increased over the study period; however, mortality decreased from 9.0 to 7.2 percent.
“AKI is a significant contributor to mortality, independently of other comorbidities, complications, and hospital characteristics, emphasizing the need for early diagnosis and aggressive management in such patients,” the authors write.
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