Hospital cases of gangrene have increased dramatically, USA

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 09 Oct 2005 - 0:00 PDT

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The number of Americans hospitalized for treatment of gangrene increased from 21,100 in 1993 to 45,400 in 2003, according to the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Gangrene is death of tissue due to loss of blood supply which often happens with diabetes and peripheral vascular disease. Treatment may involve amputation (undergone by nearly 60 percent of hospitalized patients with gangrene in 2003), restoring the blood supply (received by nearly 20 percent of patients), removal of the dead tissue, and antibiotics.

The average age for patients with gangrene was 72 years and 56 percent of patients were men.

The in-hospital death rate during this period remained fairly constant at 6.7 percent. The average hospital charge increased from $31,100 in 1993 to $47,100 in 2003. The data do not include physician fees.

This information was produced using HCUPnet, an on-line query system that provides access to health statistics and information on hospital stays from AHRQ's Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP). This project comprises a family of health care databases and related software tools developed through a federal-state-industry partnership and sponsored by AHRQ. HCUP includes the largest set of publicly available databases on all patients in the United States, regardless of type of insurance or whether the patients had insurance. To access HCUPnet, go to hcup.ahrq.gov/HCUPnet.asp.

http://www.AHRQ.GOV

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