Adequacy and prognostic impact of treatment for severe exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Abstract

ObjectiveTo define the clinical characteristics of patients hospitalised in pneumology and internal medicine departments for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbation, to assess the compliance with the recommendations of the clinical practice guidelines and to determine the impact on the patients’ prognosis. MethodologyWe conducted a retrospective longitudinal study that randomly included patients hospitalised for COPD exacerbation in a tertiary hospital. We collected demographic and clinical variables (degree of dyspnoea and obstruction, previous exacerbations, comorbidities), readmission and mortality data and criteria for compliance with the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) guidelines and the Spanish COPD guidelines (GesEPOC). We performed a univariate, multivariate and survival analysis. ResultsThe study included 108 patients, and the mean age was 71.48 ± 11.65 years. The readmission rate was 26.4% at 3 months and 43.4% at 1 year. The hospital mortality rate was 3.9%, the mortality rate at 3 months was 21.9%, and the mortality rate at 1 year was 27.4%. The patients hospitalised in the internal medicine department had higher mortality during hospitalisation (p = .043), at 3 months (p = .028) and at 1 year (p = .007) compared with the rates for the pneumology department. Overall compliance with the clinical guidelines was 63% for the clinical evaluation (less for the patients in internal medicine: 56.1% vs. 73.8%, p = .063). For the treatment, the compliance was 26.9% for GOLD and 28.7% for GesEPOC. Compliance with the GOLD guidelines in the use of corticosteroids was associated with a lower rate of long-term readmissions (p = .041) and hospital mortality (p = .007) and 3-month mortality (p = .05). ConclusionsThe clinical profile of the patients is currently similar to that previously reported, but their clinical progression was poorer. Overall compliance with the clinical guidelines for drug treatment was low, and only appropriate use of systemic steroids was associated with a reduction in early mortality and in medium-term readmissions.