Introduction:

Due to the limited amount of health resources available, there is a need for health program and economic evaluation to inform stakeholders about optimum resource allocation. Infections in the solid organ transplant (SOT) population are clinically important but the economic burden is not well studied. The main objective of this study was to estimate the direct medical costs associated with hospitalizations for pneumonia in SOT and non-transplant patients in Canada.

Methods:

A retrospective cohort study was conducted to evaluate all Canadian SOT recipients, excluding the regions of Manitoba and Quebec, who were admitted between April 1st, 2009 and March 31st, 2014 with the most responsible diagnosis of pneumonia. We identified SOT recipients in this study by using the Canadian Organ Replacement Register (CORR), and used the following administrative databases as data sources: Discharge Abstract Database (DAD), and Resource Intensity Weight (RIW) and Cost Per Weighted Case (CPWC) provided by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). Tests for statistical significance included Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney for continuous variables, and Chi-squared tests for categorical data (two-tailed; p values ≤0.05 considered statistically significant).

Results:

Of the 179,738 recorded admissions for pneumonia, 1200 were SOT recipients. SOT patients were younger in age (mean = 56 vs. 71 yrs: p=0.01). Kidney transplant patients made up the majority of SOT patients 68% (816/1200), followed by lung transplants 50% (597/1200). 55% (93/168) of the pneumonia cases with known infectious causes were from bacteria. Outcomes data are presented in Table 1.Conclusion:

In this first pan Canadian analsyses, a greater proportion of SOT patients with pneumonia utilized SCU contibuting to increased medical costs for their hospitalization. SOT patients were more likely to receive ID consultation, with more favorable discharge disposition, including mortality.

CITATION INFORMATION: Law N, Hamandi B, Alghamdi A, Papadimitropoulos E, Husain S. The Clinical and Economic Burden of Pneumonia in Canadian Solid Organ Transplant Recipients. Am J Transplant. 2017;17 (suppl 3).

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