Rising total costs and mortality rates associated with admissions due to COPD exacerbations

Abstract

Background: To examine trends in mortality, costs and in-hospital management and outcomes of severe COPD exacerbations admitted in France. Methods: Patients hospitalized from 2007 to 2012 with COPD exacerbation as the primary diagnosis were identified from the exhaustive French medico-administrative hospitalizations database records. Four groups of severe COPD exacerbations were defined: hospitalisation in a general ward (GW) without acute respiratory failure (ARF), GW with ARF, ICU without invasive mechanical ventilation (MV), and ICU with MV. Results: A 15.48 % increase in admissions from 113 276 in 2007 to 133 497 in 2012 was recorded. Age (+9.9 months), gender (-2.5 % of male) and length of stay (-0.29 day) slightly changed while the number of ICU admissions increased markedly (+41.78 %). In-hospital mortality rates increased (+8.06 %, p