Background

The prevalence and contemporary trends of pre-heart transplantation (HT) coagulopathy and associated clinical outcomes have not been studied from a national database.

Hypothesis

Pre-HT coagulopathy is associated with increased in-hospital mortality.

Methods

Among 2454 adult HT recipients from the 2003 to 2010 Nationwide Inpatient Sample databases, 707 (29%) had pre-HT coagulopathy (defined as a comorbidity variable, based on International Classification of Diseases, Ninthe Revision, Clinical Modification and Diagnosis Related Group codes). We used propensity scores for coagulopathy to assemble a matched cohort of 664 pairs of patients with and without coagulopathy balanced in 54 baseline characteristics.

Results

The prevalence of pre-HT coagulopathy increased from 17% in 2003 to 44% in 2010 (P for trend <0.001). In-hospital mortality occurred in 8.6% and 4.7% of matched HT recipients with and without coagulopathy, respectively (hazard ratio: 1.81; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.17-2.80; P = 0.008). Coagulopathy was not significantly associated with post-HT graft complications (odds ratio [OR]: 1.20; 95% CI: 0.95-1.52; P = 0.131) but was associated with increased blood transfusions (OR: 1.92; 95% CI, 1.54-2.41; P < 0.001). Coagulopathy and no-coagulopathy groups had no difference in median length of stay (22 days in each group, P = 0.746), but median total hospital charges were higher among patients with coagulopathy compared to those without (US$425 643 vs US$389 656; P = 0.008).

Conclusions

In this national study of HT recipients, pretransplant coagulopathy was common, increased over time, and was not significantly associated with post-HT graft complications or increased hospital stay. However, it was associated with increased bleeding risk, in-hospital mortality, and total hospital charges. These findings may have implications for the selection of patients for HT.