Prevalence, Outcomes, and Costs According to Patient Frailty Status for 2.9 Million Cardiac Electronic Device Implantations in the United States

Abstract

BackgroundLittle is known about the impact of frailty on length of stay (LOS), cost, and in-hospital procedural outcomes of cardiac implantable electronic device (CIED) implantation procedures. MethodsAll de novo CIED implantations recorded in the United States (2004-2014) from a national database were stratified according to the Hospital Frailty Risk Score into low-risk (LRF; <5), intermediate-risk (IRF; 5-15), and high-risk (HRF; > 15) frailty groups. Regression analyses were performed to assess the association between frailty and procedural outcomes. ResultsOf 2,902,721 implantations, LRF, IRF, and HRF were 77.6%, 21.2%, and 1.2%, respectively. Frailty increased from 2004 to 2014 (IRF: 14.3% to 32.5%, HRF: 0.2% to 3.3%). Complications were 2- to 3-fold higher in the IRF and HRF groups, whereas all-cause mortality was 4- to 9-fold higher in the IRF (2.9%) and HRF (5.3%) groups, depending on the type of CIED (P < 0.001 for all). Rates of complications increased over the study years and all-cause mortality declined, especially in the higher frailty risk groups (2004 vs 2014; mortality: IRF: 3.8% vs 2.2%, HRF: 9.9% vs 4.5%; bleeding: IRF: 3.7% vs 9.0%, HRF: 3.9% vs 12.2%; thoracic: IRF: 4.3% vs 6.0%, HRF: 2.9% vs 9.1%; cardiac: IRF: 0.5% vs 0.9%, HRF: 0.5% vs 0.9%). Rising frailty was associated with an increase in cost (P < 0.001) and LOS (median 3, 8, 11 days for LRF, IRF, HRF, respectively, P < 0.001). The cost for patients with HRF receiving a defibrillator was approximately a quarter million USD$ per patient. ConclusionsFrailty is associated with worse clinical outcomes, higher cost, and LOS independent of age or CIED type. Our findings emphasize the importance of frailty assessment.