Prognostic factors and length of stay in pulmonary embolism

From a recently published study:

Introduction

Patients with pulmonary embolism (PE) are commonly admitted to hospital for their initial treatment. We aimed to assess the association of length of hospital stay with commonly available clinical variables and their combinations.

Methods

A retrospective multicenter cohort study was conducted on consecutive PE patients admitted to eight Italian centers. Logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate the association between the length of hospital stay and the Pulmonary Embolism Severity Index (PESI) parameters, National Early Warning Score (NEWS) and other possible determinants.

Results

We enrolled 391 patients, with a median hospital stay of 10 days (IQR 7–14). Among PESI parameters, only oxygen saturation less than 90% was significantly associated with length of hospital stay at univariable analysis (OR 1.99; 95% CI 1.3–3.2). At multivariable analysis, NEWS greater than or equal to 5 was associated with prolonged hospitalization (OR 3.14; 95% CI 1.2–8.3). A difference of median hospital stay was found between simplified PESI high and low risk groups (10 and 9 days, respectively, p = 0.027).

Discussion

The median duration of hospital stay was generally long and not influenced by single parameters of PESI or common prognostic factors. The difference of one day between the low- and high-risk groups according to simplified PESI was not clinically significant.

Here’s a calculator for the PESI along with some background information.