Vascular Medicine News

Congestive heart failure is the most common cause of hospital admissions among elderly patients. It is the reason for at least 20 percent of all hospital admissions among persons older than 65 . The American Heart Association reports that nearly 5.7 million Americans have heart failure today, with an incidence approaching 10 per 1000 among persons older than 65 years of age . According to the CDC, the prevalence of Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) in the United States was on the rise from 1980-1995 and the rate of hospitalizations for heart failure also increased by 159 percent within the same time period. There is also an enormous fiscal burden of Congestive heart failure; the condition currently amounts to about 1-2% of the US total annual health care costs (approximately 39 billion dollars). The national impact of this condition on Medicare is expected to get worse as the baby boomers begin to turn 65. argest study of its kind to explore the influence of DVT on mortality among patients hospitalized with heart failure across the United States. The findings from this study show that lower extremity DVT is associated with increased mortality among CHF patients. It also showed that patients hospitalized with CHF who have prolonged hospital courses are more likely to be diagnosed with DVT. We observed that patients who were admitted for 4-7 days were 2.5 times as likely to develop DVT as patients admitted for less than 3 days. While those who stayed between 8- 13 days were 4.1 times more likely to develop DVT than those admitted for less than 3 days. It also showed that DVT among patients with CHF is an independent predictor of mortality. patients hospitalized with CHF who have prolonged hospital course were more likely to develop DVT. The occurrence of DVT in this population was also found to be an independent predictor of mortality after controlling for other co-morbidities. We propose that discharge planning with early mobilization and physical therapy be instituted as soon as possible in these patients to reduce their duration of hospital stay and risk of DVT and mortality.

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Last date updated on April, 2024