Objective: Describe hospital readmission for status epilepticus (SE) in the United States, and study potential risk factors for readmission.
Methods: This is a retrospective observational study using the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project's 2016 Nationwide Readmissions Database. We studied patients of all ages admitted to the hospital due to SE.
Results: We included 32 327 patients admitted for SE in 2016. 8.4% of these patients were readmitted for SE at least one more time within 2016 (cross-sectional analysis). The incidence rate was 18 readmissions for SE per 1000 patient-months. Among the survivors of the index admission for SE who had at least 6 months of follow-up within this database (16 043 patients), the cumulative probability of having a readmission for SE at 1, 3, and 6 months from the index admission was approximately 3.5%, 7.5%, and 11%, respectively (time-to-event analysis). Patients with refractory epilepsy were more likely to have a readmission for SE compared to patients without refractory epilepsy (hazard ratio [HR] 1.49, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.23-1.82, adjusted P =.0006), and pediatric patients were more likely to have a readmission for SE compared to adult patients (HR 1.53, 95% CI 1.26-1.87, adjusted P = .0003) during 6-month follow-up.
Significance: Hospital readmissions for SE in the United States are frequent. Independent factors associated with readmission in this database were refractory epilepsy and pediatric age.
Keywords: epidemiology; epilepsy; hospital readmission; risk factor; seizure; status epilepticus.
© 2020 International League Against Epilepsy.