The Impact of Chronic Kidney Disease on Hospitalized Patients With Peripheral Arterial Disease and Critical Limb Ischemia

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) are major public health problems worldwide. Evaluations of large-scale data on morbidity, outcome, and costs in patients having PAD with CKD are essential. Cross-sectional nationwide population-based analysis of all hospitalizations for PAD during 2009 in Germany focused on the stage-related impact of CKD on morbidity, in-hospital mortality, amputations, length of hospital stay, and health-related expenditure. The total number of hospitalizations was 483 961. Of those, 132 993 (27.5%) had CKD. Chronic kidney disease caused 1.8-fold higher amputation rate (P < .001) with a stepwise increasing rate with higher CKD stage. Chronic kidney disease doubled in-hospital mortality of patients with PAD (7.8%; n = 10 421) versus 4.0% (n = 14 174, P < .001) with a stepwise increasing risk with higher CKD stage (P < .001). The highest in-hospital mortality occurred in patients with coprevalence of CKD stage 4 and Fontaine stage IV (16.4%, n = 1176, P < .001). Chronic kidney disease caused 15% higher costs and 21% increased length of stay compared to the whole PAD cohort. This analysis demonstrates the stage-related influence of CKD on morbidity, in-hospital mortality, amputations, length of hospital stay, and reimbursement costs of hospitalized patients with PAD.