Correlation of cost in teaching hospital with outcomes in patients with cardiac myxoma: A retrospective study using the national in-patient data sample (NIS).

Abstract

e23062 Background: Cardiac myxoma (CM) is a rare cancer, benign but functionally malignant. It is the most common cardiac tumor and is more frequent in females in North America and Europe. Mortality has been associated with cardiac burden complications and the resolving capacity of the medical center to diagnose and treat these complications. Methods: A retrospective cohort analysis focused on adults admitted to hospitals between 2016 and 2020 with a primary diagnosis of CM. Data for this study were obtained from the NIS Database. The primary outcome was to determine if higher cost in teaching hospitals has an impact on mortality outcomes compared with non-teaching teaching hospitals. We looked at sociodemographic characteristics, length of stay (LoS), and complications as secondary outcomes. Hypothesis testing for categorical variables was tested with Chi-Square. Continuous variables were tested with a Student t-test. Statistical significance was defined as a two-tailed P value of < 0.05. Results: A total of 3,744 patients met inclusion criteria: 3014 were within teaching hospitals (TH), and 730 were within no-teaching hospitals (NTH). The median age was similar in both settings: 64 years in TH and 68 years in NTH (p < 0.001). LoS was higher in TH, 7.6 days, vs. NTH, 6.3 days (p = 0.05). Hospitalization costs were higher in TH, for a mean of $156,658 than in NTH, for a mean of $109,328 (p < 0.001). Most patients were females, 1850 in TH and 405 in NTH (p = 0.24). Mortality was higher in TH 75 vs. NTH 45 (p = 0.02). The population was composed of mostly White patients (68% in TH vs. 73% in NTH), followed by Back (14% in TH vs. 9% in NTH), Hispanics (11% in TH vs. 9% in NTH), Asian (3% in TH vs. 6% in NTH) and Native American patients (5% in TH vs. 0% in NTH) (p = 0.22). Patients were located mainly in the south region (39% in TH vs. 43% in NTH), followed by a similar distribution between the West (20% in TH vs. 27% in NTH), Central (23% in TH vs. 20% in NTH) and East regions (20% in TH vs. 10% in NTH) (p = 0.02). The most frequent payer was Medicare, 56% in TH vs 64% in NTH and private insurance, 28% in TH vs 24% in NTH (p < 0.001). Cardiac pathologies were the most frequent comorbidities: Congestive Heart Failure (p = 0.39), Cardiovascular disease (p = 0.18), hypertension (p = 0.1), and coronary artery disease (p = 0.44). The most common complications were cardiovascular, as demonstrated in previous studies. Conclusions: Cardiac Myxoma is a benign tumor with fatal severe complications that affect the more elderly female white population. Our study revealed a lack of significance between the outcome and the type of hospital in which patients received treatment. Similarly, mortality was not found to be driven by sociodemographic characteristics in our analysis.