Cardiovascular Hospitalization Increased After Sepsis Hospitalization

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 1, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Patients discharged after sepsis hospitalization have an increased risk for all-cause mortality and rehospitalization and cardiovascular hospitalization, according to a study published online Feb. 1 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Jacob C. Jentzer, M.D., from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and colleagues examined the association between sepsis during hospitalization and subsequent death and rehospitalization among patients who survived a medical/nonsurgical hospitalization lasting at least two nights. Data were included for 2,258,464 survivors of nonsurgical hospitalizations with 5,396,051 patient-years of follow-up.

The researchers found that 808,673 patients (35.8 percent) had a sepsis hospitalization, including 448,644, 124,841, and 235,188 with implicit sepsis only, explicit sepsis only, and both, respectively. The risks for all-cause mortality, all-cause rehospitalization, and cardiovascular hospitalization, especially heart failure hospitalization, were increased for patients with sepsis during hospitalization (adjusted hazard ratios, 1.27, 1.38, 1.43, and 1.51, respectively). Higher risk was seen for patients with implicit versus explicit sepsis. Concordant results were seen for cardiovascular hospitalization in a sensitivity analysis using the first hospitalization and in a propensity-weighted analysis (adjusted hazard ratios, 1.78 and 1.52, respectively).

"Our findings indicate that after hospitalization with sepsis, close follow-up care is important, and it may be valuable to implement cardiovascular prevention therapies with close supervision," Jentzer said in a statement. "Professionals need to be aware that people who have previously had sepsis are at very high risk for cardiovascular events, and that it may be necessary to advise them to increase the intensity of their cardiovascular prevention."

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