Causes and outcome of hospitalisations in Tunisian patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the most common reasons of admission of Tunisian patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and the outcomes of these hospitalisations.


METHODS
The charts of patients with SLE who were hospitalised at our Department of Internal Medicine during a 2-year period from January 2011 to December 2012 were retrospectively reviewed, and the demographic characteristics, clinical and laboratory features, as well as all comorbidities, were collected.


RESULTS
There were 128 episodes of hospitalisation of 87 patients with SLE. 25 patients (28.7%) were admitted twice or more. The median length of stay for all admissions was 11 days (2-76). The total number of days of hospitalisation was 1896 days, which represent 10.7% of the total number of days of hospitalisation in our department. The most common overall reason for hospitalisation was active SLE (55 events, 43%). In 29 patients, SLE was newly diagnosed during hospitalisation. Other causes of hospitalisation included assessment of the disease, infections (9.4%) and associated autoimmune disease (6.25%). Adverse drug reaction (3.1%) and thromboembolic events (1.25%) were uncommon causes of hospitalisations. There was a significant difference in length of stay between patients admitted with SLE flare and those admitted for non-SLE flare reasons (p<0.01). Four hospitalisations (3%) resulted in death. The principal cause of death was active SLE.


CONCLUSIONS
Hospitalisation of patients with SLE is common in our department. Our study of this North African SLE population confirms the findings of previous studies suggesting that active SLE and infection remain the most common causes of hospitalisation of patients with SLE.
Department of Internal Medicine , Hedi Chaker University Hospital , Sfax , Tunisia.
M
M
Jallouli
Department of Internal Medicine , Hedi Chaker University Hospital , Sfax , Tunisia.
H
H
Hriz
Department of Internal Medicine , Hedi Chaker University Hospital , Sfax , Tunisia.
Y
Y
Cherif
Department of Internal Medicine , Hedi Chaker University Hospital , Sfax , Tunisia.
S
S
Marzouk
Department of Internal Medicine , Hedi Chaker University Hospital , Sfax , Tunisia.
M
M
Snoussi
Department of Internal Medicine , Hedi Chaker University Hospital , Sfax , Tunisia.
F
F
Frikha
Department of Internal Medicine , Hedi Chaker University Hospital , Sfax , Tunisia.
R
R
Ben Salah
Department of Immunology , Habib Bourguiba University Hospital , Sfax , Tunisia.
H
H
Masmoudi
Department of Internal Medicine , Hedi Chaker University Hospital , Sfax , Tunisia.
Z
Z
Bahloul
Autoimmune Diseases; Epidemiology; Systemic Lupus Erythematosus