[Early discharge in uncomplicated acute myocardial infarction]
J Gutiérrez Morlote1, A M Lobato García, J M de la Torre Hernández
1Unidad Coronaria, Hospital Universitario Marqués de Valdecilla, Santander, Cantabria.
Introduction And Objectives:
The length of hospital stay for uncomplicated myocardial infarction is still a debatable issue. Our study tries to establish the rate of patients amenable early discharged and the safety of this practice.
Patients And Methods:
We studied retrospectively the clinical features, in-hospital events and 30-day follow up of 238 patients discharged early (5 or 6 days) during the last three years. These patients were compared with the remaining group of 929 patients discharged after a conventional stay (mean 10.4 days) in the same time frame.
Results:
The mean hospital stay in the early discharged group was 5.4 days. They had no ischemic, arrhythmic or haemodynamic complications in the acute phase. In the 30-day follow up there was only one death (at the 14 th post-myocardial infarction day) and 17 readmissions to the hospital, none with re-infarction. By contrast, there were 14 deaths and 43 readmissions among the patients with the standard stay at the hospital.
Conclusions:
At least 20% of patients with uncomplicated myocardial infarction can be discharged early. This practice seems to be safe in low risk groups, and is not associated with a higher rate of complications when compared with longer hospital stays.
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