Hospitalizations in patients with systemic sclerosis: Differences between limited and diffuse cutaneous subtypes

Systemic sclerosis is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. It remains unclear from the literature if there are differences between the subtypes of systemic sclerosis and the rate of hospitalization. Our study investigates the rates of all types of hospitalizations between limited and diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis.

Patients have been collected prospectively using the European Scleroderma Trials and Research Group database at the Waikato Hospital, and were screened for inclusion criteria. Data were collected retrospectively on hospitalizations (total, acute, elective and infusion-related) for all patients.

Overall, 140 patients were included in the analysis with 84 (60.0%) with limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis, 40 (28.6%) with diffuse systemic sclerosis, 3 (2.1%) with systemic sclerosis sine scleroderma and 13 (9.3%) with overlap syndrome. The mean number of total hospitalizations in 12 months was 0.9 (SD 3.0) for patients with limited disease versus 1.7 (SD 3.0) for diffuse disease (p = 0.062). The mean number of acute hospitalizations in 12 months was 0.6 (SD 1.3) for limited and 1.2 (SD 2.4) for diffuse (p = 0.061). Patients with diffuse systemic sclerosis were more likely to be admitted for reasons relating to systemic sclerosis than patients with limited disease (p < 0.001).

Diffuse and limited systemic sclerosis subtypes appear to have similar rates of hospitalizations though there is a trend in favour of diffuse disease towards more total and acute hospitalizations. There are clear differences in causes of hospitalization between the two main subgroups.