BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to assess whether or not the change in coding classification had an impact on diagnosis and comorbidity coding in hospital discharge data across Canadian provinces. METHODS This study examined eight years (fiscal years 1998 to 2005) of hospital records from the Hospital Person-Oriented Information database (HPOI) derived from the Canadian national Disc...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The Charlson Index is commonly used in outcome studies to adjust for patient comorbid conditions, but has not been specifically validated for use in studies of ischemic stroke. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether outcomes of ischemic stroke patients varied on the basis of the Charlson Index. METHODS The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Stroke St...

With advances in the effectiveness of treatment and disease management, the contribution of chronic comorbid diseases (comorbidities) found within the Charlson comorbidity index to mortality is likely to have changed since development of the index in 1984. The authors reevaluated the Charlson index and reassigned weights to each condition by identifying and following patients to observe mortali...

OBJECTIVE Surgery remains the best curative option for oesophageal cancer. This demanding intervention performed on a high risk patient is accompanied by high morbidity and mortality rates. The aim of this study was to analyse the preoperative risk assessment using different comorbidity models inpatients operated for esophageal cancer in a tertiary unit. METHODS A retrospective study was cond...

HYPOTHESIS Survival until a fixed time after injury is a more useful outcome variable than survival until hospital discharge. DESIGN We sought to determine whether 30-day survival could be accurately predicted by hospital discharge status. SETTING Academic research. PATIENTS We analyzed Medicare fee-for-service records for patients 65 years or older admitted with a principal diagnosis of ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Several diseases commonly co-exist with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), especially in elderly patients. This study aimed to investigate whether there is an association between COPD severity and the frequency of comorbidities in stable COPD patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS In this multicenter, cross-sectional study, patients with spirometric diagnosis of CO...

BACKGROUND Risk adjustment and mortality prediction in studies of critical care are usually performed using acuity of illness scores, such as Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II), which emphasize physiological derangement. Common risk adjustment systems used in administrative datasets, like the Charlson index, are entirely based on the presence of co-morbid illnesses. T...

BACKGROUND The Charlson index is a widely used measure of comorbidity. The objective was to compare Charlson index scores calculated using administrative data to those calculated using case-note review (CNR) in relation to all-cause mortality and initiation of renal replacement therapy (RRT) in the Grampian Laboratory Outcomes Mortality and Morbidity Study (GLOMMS-1) chronic kidney disease coho...

Objective Studies on the association between self-rated health and acute conditions are sparse. The aim of this study was to examine whether individuals respond to acute conditions (such as the common cold) in health ratings as well as the effect of chronic conditions (using the Charlson comorbidity score) on self-rated health. Methods The national representative survey data was linked with t...

Background: Enterobacter is a common nosocomial microorganism and its carbapenem’s resistance has increased. The management of these cases is unclear. Objective: We evaluated 16 patients with KPC-producing Enterobacter aerogenes infections, detailing the site of infection, therapy, clinical and epidemiological data. Methods: A retrospective and descriptive study. Clinical data were revised and ...