Abstract
Objective: Prevalence of alcohol abuse (AA) in the United States (US) is on the increase. AA patients may develop alcohol withdrawal (AW) during hospitalization, but it remains unknown how AW influences acute ischemic stroke (AIS) outcome. Methods: All adult AIS admissions in the US from 2004–2014 were identified from the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) (weighted N=4,438,968). Multivariable-adjusted models were used to evaluate the association of AW with in-hospital medical complications, mortality, cost, and length-of-stay in patients with AIS. Results: During this period, 3.9% of all AIS admissions had comorbid codes for AA but prevalence differed significantly by age; 10.6% of AA patients, representing 0.4% of all AIS, developed AW. Prevalence of AA and AW in AIS increased by 45.2% and 40.0%, respectively, over time (p-value for trend <0.001). AA patients were predominantly men (80.2%), white (65.9%), and in the 40–59-year (44.6%) and 60–79-year (45.6%) age groups. After multivariable adjustment, AIS patients with AW had >50% increased odds of urinary tract infection, pneumonia, sepsis, gastrointestinal bleeding, deep venous thrombosis, and acute renal failure compared to those without AW. Patients with AW were also 32% more likely to die during their AIS hospitalization compared to those without AW (OR 1.32, 95% CI 1.11–1.58). AW was associated with 15-day increase in length-of-stay and $5,000 increase in hospitalization cost (p-values <0.001). Conclusions: AW is associated with increased cost, longer hospitalizations, and higher odds of medical complications and in-hospital mortality following AIS. Proactive surveillance and management of AW may be important in improving outcomes in these patients.
Published Version
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