Published: 10 February 2022
Authors: David Jiménez, Carmen Rodríguez, Francisco León, Luis Jara-Palomares, Raquel López-Reyes, Pedro Ruiz-Artacho, Teresa Elías, Remedios Otero, Alberto García-Ortega, Agustina Rivas-Guerrero, Jaime Abelaira, Sonia Jiménez, Alfonso Muriel, Raquel Morillo, Deisy Barrios, Raphael Le Mao, Roger D. Yusen, Behnood Bikdeli, Manuel Monreal, and José Luis Lobo for the IPEP investigators
Source: This abstract has been sourced from NZ Respiratory Research Review Issue 202
Background The length of hospital stay (LOS) for acute pulmonary embolism (PE) varies considerably. Whether the upfront use of a PE prognostic assessment and management pathway is effective in reducing the LOS remains unknown.
Methods We conducted a randomised controlled trial of adults hospitalised for acute PE: patients were assigned either to a prognostic assessment and management pathway involving risk stratification followed by predefined criteria for mobilisation and discharge (intervention group) or to usual care (control group). The primary end-point was LOS. The secondary end-points were the cost of prognostic tests and of hospitalisation, and 30-day clinical outcomes.
Results Of 500 patients who underwent randomisation, 498 were included in the modified intention-to-treat analysis. The median LOS was 4.0 days (interquartile range (IQR) 3.7–4.2 days) in the intervention group and 6.1 days (IQR 5.7–6.5 days) in the control group (p<0.001). The mean total cost of prognostic tests was EUR 174.76 in the intervention group, compared with EUR 233.12 in the control group (mean difference EUR −58.37, 95% CI EUR −84.34 to −32.40). The mean total hospitalisation cost per patient was EUR 2085.66 in the intervention group, compared with EUR 3232.97 in the control group (mean difference EUR −1147.31, 95% CI EUR −1414.97 to −879.65). No significant differences were observed in 30-day readmission (4.0% versus 4.8%), all-cause mortality (2.4% versus 2.0%) or PE-related mortality (0.8% versus 1.2%) rates.
Conclusions The use of a prognostic assessment and management pathway was effective in reducing the LOS for acute PE.
Link to abstract