Abstract
Our aim was to investigate the recent mortality and hospitalization rates as well as the underlying comorbidities of hospitalized sarcoidosis patients in Switzerland. In this nested case-control study, a nation-wide database enclosing every hospital entry covering the years 2002-2012 (n = 15,627,573) was analyzed. Cases, defined as any hospitalization with the (main or concomitant) diagnosis of sarcoidosis, were compared with age- and sex-matched controls. There were 8,385 cases representing 0.054% of all hospitalizations in Switzerland. Hospitalization and mortality rates remained stable over the observed time period. Sarcoidosis patients had significantly higher medication-related comorbidities. They were more frequently re-hospitalized (median annual hospitalization rate 0.28 vs. 0.19 per year), had a longer hospital stay (6 vs. 4 days), had more comorbidities (4 vs. 2) and had a significantly higher in-hospital mortality (2.6% vs. 1.8%; p<0.001 respectively). A worse outcome was observed among sarcoidosis patients with associated respiratory diseases.
Overall, our analysis revealed stable mortality and hospitalization rates over the observed time period. However, patients with sarcoidosis showed a significantly worse outcome compared to matched controls. This could be due to the disease itself as well as to associated respiratory diseases, but also possibly due to side effects of more aggressive therapeutic agents.
- Copyright ©the authors 2016