Increasing Demand for Hospitalization in Adults with Congenital Heart Disease

Negishi et al. reported unexpected hospitalization (UEH) in adults with congenital heart disease (CHD) in a single center (National Cerebral Cardiovascular Center, Suita, Japan). They included patients ≥18 years with CHD who were hospitalized at this facility from January 2005 to December 2009. The causes of UEH were arrhythmia, heart failure, infectious disease, hemorrhage or thrombosis, neurological abnormality, and other causes. They investigated the duration of hospitalization for patients who survived to discharge from the hospital, the incidence of death, presence/absence of a heart transplant or heart/lung transplant, and the incidence of a second UEH. They also calculated post-discharge survival and post-discharge event-free survival rates. An event was considered either death or a second UEH, regardless of cause. Overall, 886 patients with CHD underwent 1371 hospitalizations; of these, 145 patients were unexpectedly hospitalized 239 times (17%). The median age at UEH was 27 years old and younger people (18–29 years of age) comprised 58% of all subjects. Underlying heart diseases included repaired Tetralogy of Fallot (21%), single Editorial