Unplanned readmission within the most recent postoperative year of heart transplant patients in Taiwan

Abstract

Continuous postoperative follow-up should be performed for patients. Nurses can function as the patient's evaluator, advisor, educator and advocator, to conduct postoperative care and carry out follow-up plans to prevent readmission.

Unplanned readmission of patients with heart transplantation in 1 year: A retrospective study

“…Readmissions due to infection were caused by CMV, viral, bacterial and fungal infections. These findings are consistent with previous studies where patients who received a heart transplant were readmitted because of infection, rejection and cardiac‐related problems (Huang et al, ; Tsao et al, ). Moreover, tumour, rejection, CAV, liver failure and kidney failure were major factors previously reported to be associated with death after heart transplantation (Fuchs et al, ).…”

“…This suggests that changes in the medical environment such as the development of medical technology, promotion of immunosuppressive therapy, transplantation training for medical providers and the development of organ transport technology (helicopter for organ transport) that have been implemented since the year 2000 all had an effect on readmission rates. Among risk factors, postoperative high creatinine levels were consistent with the results of Huang et al (). Therefore, nurses should be aware of the need for thorough monitoring of blood tests during the use of immunosuppressive drugs with the potential for nephrotoxicity among heart transplantation patients and guidelines should be developed to allow for early screening and assessment of patients with potential nephrotoxicity.…”

“…We analysed the individual, disease‐related and therapeutic characteristics of heart transplant recipients and identified the risk factors for readmission. Our results are comparable to the 31% readmission rate in 30 days among renal transplant patients (McAdams‐Demarco et al, ), 66% readmission rate in 1 year (Bachmann et al, ) and 52.2% readmission rate in 5 years for heart transplant patients (Huang et al, ).…”

“…Several earlier studies have examined factors associated with readmission in 1 year after transplantation. Allograft loss, infection, rejection and cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) were identified as risk factors for complications and readmission after heart transplantation (Huang, Wang, Tai, & Lou, ; Tsao et al, ; Weber et al, ). In liver transplant patients, biliary complications, postoperative complications, rejection, malignant liver neoplasm and infection were found to be risk factors for readmission (Chen et al, ).…”

Association between Frequency Domain Heart Rate Variability and Unplanned Readmission to Hospital in Geriatric Patients

“…This is in contrast to a previous study designed to examine the rate of UR within the most recent postoperative year for heart transplant patients. The authors reported that BUN and creatinine levels were significantly higher in readmitted patients than in patients who were not [25]. …”