Risk factors associated with length of hospital stay and medical expenses in pulmonary abscess patients: retrospective study

Background Pulmonary abscess carries a high mortality and requires long-term managements. A better understanding of the risk factors associated with the prolonged hospital stay and high medical expenses in these patients can improve the management strategy in individual patient and optimize the overall healthcare resources. Methods We performed a retrospective study and reviewed the medical records on consecutive patients hospitalized at the Department of Respiratory Medicine of the General Hospital of Northern Theater Command, Shenyang, Liaoning, China, between January 1, 2015, and December 31, 2020. Demographics, comorbidity, clinical symptoms, laboratory tests, length of hospital stay, and medical expenses were recorded. Their relationships with the length of hospital stay and medical expenses in pulmonary abscess patients were analyzed. Results There were 190 patients with the pulmonary abscess and 12,189 patients without the pulmonary abscess. Compared with patients without the pulmonary abscess, patients with the pulmonary abscess had longer hospital stays (21.8 ± SD vs 12.8 ± SD, P < 0.01), In patients with the pulmonary abscess, the mean length of hospital stay was 5.3 days longer in male vs female patients (P = 0.025). Multivariate linear regression analyses showed that extrapulmonary disease and clinical symptoms were associated with the length of hospital stay and medical expenses, respectively. In addition, anemia was associated with both the length of hospital stay and medical expenses. Sex and hypoproteinemia were associated with the medical expenses. Conclusions The mean length of hospital stay was longer in patients with the pulmonary abscess than those without the pulmonary abscess. The length of hospital stay and medical expense were associated with sex, clinical symptoms, extrapulmonary disease, and abnormal laboratory tests in patients with the pulmonary abscess.