Abstract 16190: National Trends in RSV Hospitalizations in Children With Hemodynamically Significant Heart Disease, 1997-2009

Abstract

Background: Children with hemodynamically significant heart disease (HS-HD) are at risk for morbidities and mortality due to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Palivizumab was approved for RSV prophylaxis in 1998. Guidelines released in December 2003 recommend palivizumab for all children < 2 yrs with HS-HD. We sought to define the impact of RSV prophylaxis in children with HS-HD by evaluating trends in U.S. RSV hospitalizations. Methods: The 1997, ’00, ’03, ’06 and ’09 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) Kids’ Inpatient Databases (KID) were used to estimate U.S. RSV hospitalizations in children < 2 yrs, overall and in those with HS-HD, using standard HCUP weighting methods. RSV was defined by ICD-9-CM codes for RSV infection. HS-HD was defined using ICD-9-CM codes from the Clinical Classifications Software for congestive heart failure, or an ICD-9-CM code for pulmonary hypertension, common truncus, common ventricle, or hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Results: Our cohort included an estimated 461,491 RSV hospitalizations; 2,132 in children with HS-HD. Figure 1 depicts hospitalizations over time. There was no evident trend in number of overall RSV hospitalizations, however RSV hospitalizations in children with HS-HD declined by 39% from ’97 to ‘09. The largest decline was from ’97-’03. RSV hospitalizations in children with HS-HD relative to overall hospitalizations in children with HS-HD declined annually from ’97-’06 with a small increase in ‘09 (3.8%, 3.5%, 3.0%, 2.3% and 2.6% for successive analytic years). In 2009 mean hospital length of stay for children with HS-HD and RSV was 22.5 ± 2.1 days. Conclusions: RSV disease burden in children with HS-HD has declined since palivizumab approval. Much of this decline occurred before palivizumab was recommended for use in HS-HD, perhaps reflecting early adoption of prophylaxis, or greater awareness of alternative preventative strategies. RSV remains a significant cause of morbidity in children with HS-HD.