In-hospital Outcomes For Patients With A Heart Transplant In Sepsis And Septic Shock

• Published in: Journal of cardiac failure 2023-04, Vol.29 (4), p.622-622
• Main Authors: Vasudeva, Rhythm, Challa, Abhiram, Shah, Hamna, Pothuru, Suveenkrishna, Vindhyal, Mohinder
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1071-9164; 1532-8414
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cardfail.2022.10.187

Patients with heart transplants are a high-risk population vulnerable to several complications. Their risk for adverse outcomes in sepsis or septic shock (SSS) is not known. Adult patients diagnosed with SSS were identified in the National Readmissions Database (NRD) between 2016 and 2017. The nearest propensity matching method, on a 2:1 ratio, was employed for several demographic, social, and clinical variables. In-hospital outcomes between patients with a heart transplant and those without were compared using t-test and chi-squared test. Patients with cardiogenic shock were excluded. Appropriate ICD-10 codes were used, and statistical significance was set at 0.05. A total of 2,107 patients with a heart transplant were identified in sepsis or septic shock, with a mean age of 61 years and 25% identifying as females. Patients with a heart transplant had a higher prevalence of hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, renal failure, coagulation disease, and iron deficiency anemia. After matching, patients with a heart transplant and SSS, when compared to those with SSS and no heart transplant, had a lower mortality (9.2% vs 11.5%, p = 0.009), reduced rates of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (11.6% vs 16.8%, p < 0.001) and acute myocardial infarction (1.6% vs 4.9%, p < 0.001). Patients with a heart transplant, however, had worse acute kidney injury outcomes (51.1% vs 47.8%, p = 0.01), increased length of hospital stay (12.1 days vs 10.4 days, p