The economic costs to United States hospitals of invasive fungal infections in transplant patients.

BACKGROUND: Patients with a solid organ transplant (SOTs) and hematopoietic stem cell or bone marrow transplants (HSC/BMTs) are at risk of contracting invasive fungal infections (IFIs). Data on the economic burden of IFIs in the United States are sparse. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective matched cohort study using the 2004-2005 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Nationwide Inpatient Sample. The IFI cohort included patients with ICD-9-CM codes indicating a transplant procedure and an IFI. Matched controls (transplant recipients without an IFI) were chosen based on age (10 year categories), sex, region, hospital type, year, and transplant type. Mortality, length of stay, and costs were reported overall, by transplant type, and by type of mycosis. RESULTS: Nine thousand eight hundred ninety-six patients underwent SOT, and 4661 underwent HSC/BMT. Of these, 80 (0.8%) SOT and 111 (2.4%) HSC/BMT patients had an IFI. Mean age was 41.8 years (SOT) and 37.8 years (HSC/BMT). Aspergillosis was the most common infection. Patients with an IFI had a 5-fold increase in mortality, an additional 19.2 hospital days, and $55,400 in excess costs compared with patients without an IFI. Excess mortality, length of stay, and costs varied by type of transplant and mycosis. CONCLUSION: The clinical and economic burden of IFIs in transplant recipients may be high.

Mortality, length of hospitalization, and costs associated with invasive fungal infections in high-risk patients.

PURPOSE: The mortality, length of hospitalization, and costs associated with invasive fungal infections (IFIs) in hospitalized patients were studied. METHODS: This retrospective database study used data from the 2004 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Nationwide In-patient Sample. Patients were selected for inclusion based on diagnostic codes corresponding to an IFI. A control group was matched to the IFI group based on high-risk conditions (i.e., cancer, infection with human immunodeficiency virus, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes mellitus, and solid-organ, hematopoietic stem cell, or bone marrow transplant), age, sex, and hospital region and teaching status. Excess mortality, length of hospital stay, and costs were estimated as the differences between the IFI and control groups. RESULTS: A total of 11,881 patients were identified with a discharge diagnosis of an IFI who could be matched to a control. Frequent infections included candidiasis (40.2%), other mycoses (36.3%), and aspergillosis (16.4%). Patients with IFIs had a significantly higher mortality rate (15% versus 5%), mean +/- S.E. length of stay (18.7 +/- 0.4 days versus 7.3 +/- 0.1 days), and mean +/- S.E. costs ($44,726 +/- $1,255 versus $15,445 +/- $404) (p < 0.001 for all comparisons) than did patients without IFIs. The burden of IFIs varied by high-risk condition (highest for transplant recipients and patients with cancer) and type of infection (highest for candidiasis, zygomycosis, and aspergillosis). CONCLUSION: Examination of a large database showed that, compared with high-risk patients without IFIs, those with IFIs had higher mortality, a longer hospital stay, and higher costs associated with their hospitalization.