title: Reasons for hospitalization in Parkinson's disease: a case-control study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To characterize reasons for hospital admission, mortality and surgical procedures in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) compared to controls.
  
  
  METHODS
  The clinical features of all consecutive patients from 2000 to 2007 were reviewed. We identified patients with PD (ICD 9 code 332.0) from a database of our General Hospital (Vimercate) with a catchment's population of 180,000. Data on admitting wards as well as reasons for admission, surgical procedures performed and clinical outcome were collected. Clinical data were compared to an age and sex matched control population admitted in the same period of time.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The total number of admissions was 367. Mean age was 76.7 years. The mean duration of stay was 9.2 days for controls and 9.7 for PD patients. A comorbid disorder was the cause of admission in 80% of cases and 79% of cases came from the Emergency Room. Infectious diseases, mainly respiratory infections, were more frequent in PD of both sexes, while trauma was significantly higher only in PD men. Percentage of patients treated surgically was similar in both cases and controls. Intrahospital mortality was 6% both in PD and controls. Infectious diseases were more frequent in PD patients while cardiovascular death was more frequent in controls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Comorbidity in PD is higher than reported in other reports. In our study PD patients had the same length of hospitalization and intrahospital mortality as controls. The presence of a control population allows to discriminate between general complications of the elderly and specific vulnerabilities of PD patients.
authors.affiliation: S.C. Neurologia, Azienda Ospedaliera di Desio e Vimercate, Italy. Electronic address: milanobraga@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Massimiliano
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Braga
authors.affiliation: S.C. Neurologia, Azienda Ospedaliera di Desio e Vimercate, Italy.
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pederzoli
authors.affiliation: Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Unit, IRCCS Hospital San Camillo, Viale Alberoni 70, Venice, Italy.
authors.forename: Angelo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Antonini
authors.affiliation: Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Festa del Perdono 7, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Beretta
authors.affiliation: S.C. Neurologia, Azienda Ospedaliera di Desio e Vimercate, Italy.
authors.forename: Vittorio
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Crespi
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002391:Catchment Area, Health; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007239:Infections / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D010343:Patient Admission; D012189:Retrospective Studies
keywords: Comorbidity; Hospitalization; Inpatient care; Parkinson's disease