Hospital readmission in patients treated with tiered-therapy implantable defibrillators

Background We wished to determine the incidence, reasons, casts, and predictors of cardiac-related hospital readmission in patients with tiered-therapy implantable defibrillators. Hospital readmission in patients with defibrillators reduces their quality of life and increases the cost associated with such therapy. Methods and Results We retrospectively studied 65 consecutive local patients (median age, 67 years; median ejection fraction, 0.34) who underwent tiered-therapy defibrillator implantation at this institution. Patients were followed for a median of 19 months (interquartile range, 10 to 27 months). The cause, duration, costs, and predictors of cardiac-related rehospitalizations were analyzed. There were 76 cardiac admissions for 34 patients. The rate of cardiac-related hospital readmission was 0.72 per patient-year of follow-up. Arrhythmia-related admissions accounted for 33 of such admissions in 23 patients. Actuarial freedom from cardiac-related admissions was 0.57 and 0.40 at 1 and 2 years, respectively. The median length of stay for hospital readmissions was 5 days (interquartile range, 3 to 8 days). The median cost per admission was $5842 (interquartile range, $3549 to $12 170). The time to first readmission and the total rehospitalization time per year of follow-up were associated with a poor preimplant New York Heart Association functional class. Readmission for cardiac arrhythmias was nor predicted by clinical parameters. Conclusions Rehospitalization For cardiac reasons is common in patients receiving implantable defibrillators and is responsible for substantial resource consumption. The need for readmission for arrhythmia-related reasons cannot be predicted by clinical parameters at the time of device implantation.