AB0171 REASONS FOR HOSPITALISATION IN PATIENTS WITH INFLAMMATORY RHEUMATIC DISEASES. DATA ANALYSIS FROM THE CODING OF OUTPATIENT MEDICAL RECORDS IN A HOSPITAL
Authors: J. R. Lamúa Riazuelo, A. Herranz, D. Lopez Ovejero
Journal: Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (2024)

<h3>Background:</h3> There are many comorbidities associated with inflammatory rheumatic diseases. Both the disease activity itself and the risks associated with the treatments used can lead to an increased need of hospitalisation in tis patients. <h3>Objectives:</h3> To estimate and analyse the causes of hospital admission in patients with different inflammatory rheumatic diseases. <h3>Methods:</h3> Observational, descriptive, retrospective single-centre study of the reasons for admission of patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases from January 2021 to August 2023. For the rapid identification of patients, the coding of medical records in the hospital outpatient consultation, using the ICD-10 system, was used. <h3>Results:</h3> Between January 2021 and August 2023 there were 306 hospital admissions of patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases previously coded in the outpatient consultation using 37 different ICD-10 codes. 185 admissions were female (60.5%), mean age 69.15 (13.3SD) years and a mean stay of 7.69 (7.04SD) days. 254 (83%) were admissions from the ED, and 52(17%) were admissions due to scheduled surgeries(42.3% trauma, 42.3% digestive, 7.7% urological, 5.8% urological and 1.7% ENT). Emergency surgery during admission was required in 22 patients (8.7%), with trauma (50%) and digestive (40.9%) being the most common. Among all admissions, the main reasons were respiratory (36.2%), digestive (17.3%), cardiovascular (16.9%), trauma (7.5%), nephro/urological (6.7%) and disease activity (5.5%). Infectious causes account for 46.1% of the admissions, being respiratory (67.5%), digestive (13.7%) and urinary (12%) the most frequent. The most frequent pathologies admitted are seropositive rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (34%), spondyloarthropathies (15%), seronegative RA (11. 4%), psoriatic arthritis (9.8%), Sjogren's syndrome (5.9%), polymyalgia rheumatica (5.9%) and systemic lupus erythematosus (3.3%). Respiratory infection was the most frequent reason for admission in RA patients (seropositive and seronegative), ischaemic heart disease in patients with spondyloarthropathies, COVID infection in patients with psoriatic arthritis, biliary colic in Sjogren's syndrome and disease activity in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (Graph 1). Coronavirus/COVID infection accounts for 40.5% of respiratory infections and 27.3% of overall admissions due to infectious causes, being more frequent in patients with seropositive RA and psoriatic arthritis. <h3>Conclusion:</h3> Infections are the most common reason for admission in patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases, being respiratory infections the most frequent. Disease activity results in a low rate of hospital admissions. The outpatient medical record coding strategy is a useful and accessible tool that provides a better control and a rapid identification of patients seen in our departments. <h3>REFERENCES:</h3> <b>NIL.</b> <h3>Acknowledgements:</h3> <b>NIL.</b> <h3>Disclosure of Interests:</h3> <b>None declared.</b>