2024 Volume 88 Issue 1 Pages 83-89
Background: The prevalence of adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) is increasing rapidly and in particular, patients who underwent complicated surgeries are reaching their youth and middle age. Therefore, the need for ACHD treatment will increase, but the current medical situation is unknown. In this study we assessed trends in unplanned admissions in patients with ACHD in Japan.
Methods and Results: From the Japanese Registry of All Cardiac and Vascular Diseases-Diagnosis Procedure Combination, a nationwide claim-based database, we selected patients aged >15 years with CHD defined by the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision codes. We identified 39,676 admissions between April 2012 and March 2018; 10,444 (26.3%) were unplanned. Main diagnoses were categorized into 3 degrees of complexity (severe, moderate, and mild) and other. Among unplanned admissions, the proportion of the severe group increased with time. Patients in the mild group were significantly older than those in the moderate and severe groups (median age: 70.0, 39.0, and 32.0 years, respectively). There were 765 deaths during hospitalization (overall mortality rate, 7.3%). The odds ratio of death during admission was significantly higher in patients aged >50 years, especially in the moderate group.
Conclusions: Patients with moderate or severe ACHD tended to experience unplanned admissions at a younger age. In anticipation of greater numbers of new, severe patients, we need to prepare for their increasing medical demands.
