Prognostic Factors for Discharge Directly Home in Patients With Thoracoscopic Surgery for Empyema: A Multicenter Retrospective Cohort Study

Background: Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery is a widely recommended treatment for empyema in advanced stages. However, only a few studies have evaluated prognostic factors among patients with empyema who underwent video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery. Furthermore, no studies have evaluated predictors of direct discharge home. Patients and Methods: This multicenter retrospective cohort study included 161 patients with empyema who underwent video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery in five acute-care hospitals. The primary outcome was the probability of direct discharge home. The secondary outcome was the length of hospital stay after surgery. We broadly assessed pre-operative factors and performed univariable logistic regression for the direct discharge home and univariable gamma regression for the length of hospital stay after surgery. Results: Of the 161 included patients, 74.5% were directly discharged home. Age (>70 years; -24.3%); altered mental status (-33.4%); blood urea nitrogen (>22.4 mg/dL; -19.4%); and pleural pH (<7.2; -17.6%) were associated with high probabilities of not being directly discharged home. Fever (15.2%) and albumin (> 2.7 g/dL; 20.2%) were associated with high probabilities of being directly discharged home. The median length of stay after surgery was 19 days. Age (>70 years; 6.2 days); altered mental status (5.6 days); purulence (2.7 days); pleural thickness (>2 cm; 5.1 days); bronchial fistula (14.6 days); albumin (>2.7 g/dL; 3.1 days); and C-reactive protein (>20 mg/dL; 3.6 days) were associated with a longer post-operation hospital stay. Conclusions: Physicians should consider using these prognostic factors to predict non-direct discharge to the home for patients with empyema.