Higher Inpatient Mortality for Women after Intervention for Lifestyle Limiting Claudication

Background Sex-related differences in outcomes have been identified in patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD). We hypothesized that women with PAD would have equivalent inpatient mortality with men after vascular intervention. Methods Patients with a primary diagnosis of critical limb ischemia (CLI) or lifestyle-limiting claudication (LLC) receiving endovascular (EV) or open surgical repair from 2003–2012 were identified from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample. Demographics, comorbidities, and inpatient mortality were analyzed by chi-squared tests of independence and independent-samples t-tests. Logistic regression analysis was performed to identify predictors of inpatient mortality. SPSS 24 software was used with P Results We identified 139,435 (59,432 women and 80,003 men) individuals meeting the aforementioned criteria. Women were older than men (71.5 years vs. 68.2, P P P P P P P P P P P P Conclusions Women had higher inpatient mortality than men after vascular intervention for PAD. Women were also older and more likely to have EV intervention than men. Subgroup analysis suggests that these sex-related differences in inpatient mortality are more pronounced in patients with LLC than with CLI. Furthermore, regression analysis shows that sex is a significant predictor for patients diagnosed with LLC but not with CLI. Treatment guidelines should include consideration of sex in their indications for revascularization, particularly for patients diagnosed with LLC.