Researchers utilized the National Inpatient Sample database to identify and compare patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) who underwent total hip arthroplasty (THA) between 2016 and 2019, dividing them into two groups: AS patients and non-AS patients. The analysis focused on demographic information, associated comorbidities, hospital admissions data (including costs, length of stay, and complications), and employed propensity-score matching to create a comparison group of non-AS THA patients. The findings revealed that patients with AS experienced longer hospital stays and higher healthcare costs after THA compared with the general population. These increased costs can be attributed to higher complication rates, such as anemia and peri-prosthetic infections, during the early post-THA period in patients with AS.
Reference: Goel A, Viswanathan VK, Serbin P, Youngman T, Mounasamy V, Sambandam S. Ankylosing spondylitis substantially increases health-care costs and length of hospital stay following total hip arthroplasty – National in-patient database study. J Clin Orthop Trauma. 2023;39:102151. doi:10.1016/j.jcot.2023.102151
Link: https://www.journal-cot.com/article/S0976-5662(23)00059-0/fulltext
