TY - JOUR
T1 - Epidemiology of syncope in hospitalized patients
AU - Getchell, William S.
AU - Larsen, Greg C.
AU - Morris, Cynthia D.
AU - McAnulty, John H.
N1 - Funding Information:
Dr. Getchell received partial salary support from a grant (T32 HS00069) by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, National Research Service Award Institutional Grant Program. The authors acknowledge the contributions of Dr. John Grover, Dr. Ruth Medak, Dr. Xiaoyan Huang, and Sara Denning-Bolle to the study design and data collection. We also thank the Oregon Medical Professional Review Organization, Kaiser Permanente Northwest Health Maintenance Organization, and the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center for their participation in the study.
PY - 1999
Y1 - 1999
N2 - OBJECTIVE: To describe the etiologies of syncope in hospitalized patients and determine the factors that influence survival after discharge. DESIGN: Observational retrospective cohort. SETTING: Department of Veterans Affairs hospital, group-model HMO, and Medicare population in Oregon. PATIENTS: Hospitalized individuals (n = 1,516; mean age ± SD, 73.0 ± 13.4 years) with an admission or discharge diagnosis of syncope (ICD-9-CM 780.2) during 1992, 1993, or 1994. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: During a median hospital stay of 3 days, most individuals received an electrocardiogram (97%) and prolonged electrocardiographic monitoring (90%), but few underwent electrophysiology testing (2%) or tilt-table testing (0.7%). The treating clinicians identified cardiovascular causes of syncope in 19% of individuals and noncardiovascular causes in 40%. The remaining 42% of individuals were discharged with unexplained syncope. Complete heart block (2.4%) and ventricular tachycardia (2.3%) were rarely identified as the cause of syncope. Pacemakers were implanted in 28% of the patients with cardiovascular syncope and 0.4% of the others. No patient received an implantable defibrillator. All-cause mortality ± SE was 1.1% ± 0.3% during the admission, 13% ± 1% at 1 year, and 41% ± 2% at 4 years. The adjusted relative risk (RR) of dying for individuals with cardiovascular syncope (RR 1.18; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.92, 1.50) did not differ from that for unexplained syncope (RR 1.0) and noncardiovascular syncope (RR 0.94; 95% CI 0.77, 1.16). CONCLUSIONS: Among these elderly patients hospitalized with syncope, noncardiovascular causes were twice as common as cardiovascular causes. Because survival was not related to the cause of syncope, clinicians cannot be reassured that hospitalized elderly patients with noncardiovascular and unexplained syncope will have excellent outcomes.
AB - OBJECTIVE: To describe the etiologies of syncope in hospitalized patients and determine the factors that influence survival after discharge. DESIGN: Observational retrospective cohort. SETTING: Department of Veterans Affairs hospital, group-model HMO, and Medicare population in Oregon. PATIENTS: Hospitalized individuals (n = 1,516; mean age ± SD, 73.0 ± 13.4 years) with an admission or discharge diagnosis of syncope (ICD-9-CM 780.2) during 1992, 1993, or 1994. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: During a median hospital stay of 3 days, most individuals received an electrocardiogram (97%) and prolonged electrocardiographic monitoring (90%), but few underwent electrophysiology testing (2%) or tilt-table testing (0.7%). The treating clinicians identified cardiovascular causes of syncope in 19% of individuals and noncardiovascular causes in 40%. The remaining 42% of individuals were discharged with unexplained syncope. Complete heart block (2.4%) and ventricular tachycardia (2.3%) were rarely identified as the cause of syncope. Pacemakers were implanted in 28% of the patients with cardiovascular syncope and 0.4% of the others. No patient received an implantable defibrillator. All-cause mortality ± SE was 1.1% ± 0.3% during the admission, 13% ± 1% at 1 year, and 41% ± 2% at 4 years. The adjusted relative risk (RR) of dying for individuals with cardiovascular syncope (RR 1.18; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.92, 1.50) did not differ from that for unexplained syncope (RR 1.0) and noncardiovascular syncope (RR 0.94; 95% CI 0.77, 1.16). CONCLUSIONS: Among these elderly patients hospitalized with syncope, noncardiovascular causes were twice as common as cardiovascular causes. Because survival was not related to the cause of syncope, clinicians cannot be reassured that hospitalized elderly patients with noncardiovascular and unexplained syncope will have excellent outcomes.
KW - Mortality
KW - Prognosis
KW - Syncope
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U2 - 10.1046/j.1525-1497.1999.03199.x
DO - 10.1046/j.1525-1497.1999.03199.x
M3 - Article
C2 - 10571716
AN - SCOPUS:0032708937
SN - 0884-8734
VL - 14
SP - 677
EP - 687
JO - Journal of general internal medicine
JF - Journal of general internal medicine
IS - 11
ER -