Background and Aim:Readmission to the hospital within 30 days of discharge from the hospital is a common occurrence. Congestive heart failure is the most common cause of readmissions in the hospital. We hypothesized that irrespective of the admission diagnosis polypharmacy and potentially inappropriate use of medications (PIM) leads to readmissions within 30 days of discharge from the hospital.Materials and Methods:A retrospective study was carried out by reviewing the hospital records of 414 patients who were readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of discharge from the hospital between January 2008 and December 2009. The data was stratified to see which patients were on polypharmacy and/or on PIM. Polypharmacy was defined as use of more than 5 medications. PIM was defined as per the modified Beers criteria. Day 0 was defined as the day of discharge and day1 was defined as the day-after Admission to the hospital. Statistical analysis was carried out using a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) on the data to see if polypharmacy and/or PIM was related to readmission within 30 days of discharge irrespective of admission diagnosis.Results:Polypharmacy was related to hospital readmission at day 1 and day 0, however inappropriate drug use was found to be not related at any day. Polypharmacy and PIM combined had a positive correlation to readmission only on days 1 and 0 and it was statistically significant. The use of minimal and appropriate use of drugs was statistically significant compared to polypharmacy and PIM use.Conclusions:Polypharmacy and PIM are under recognized cause of readmissions to the hospital.

Background:Few studies have focused on patients’ characteristics that affects acute kidney injury (AKI) after total knee replacement surgery (TKR).Objectives:The primary objective of this retrospective study was to identify patients’ characteristics associated with AKI after TKR.Patients and Methods:Between January 2008 and December 2009, 659 patients with a mean age of 67.1 years (range, 39-99) underwent TKA at Regional Hospital Knee and Hip Institute. Retrospective chart review was done to identify patients’ characteristics that were associated with AKI after TKR. Logistic regression was used to evaluate AKI.Results:AKI occurred in 21.9% of patients. AKI risk decreased between 2008 and 2009 (odds ratio, 0.55; 95% CI, -0.37 to 0.82) but increased with age (P < 0.001), diabetes mellitus (DM), and angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI)/angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB) use (OR, -1.6; 95% CI, -1.0 to 2.5; and OR, -1.5, 95% CI, -1.0 to 2.3, respectively). However, the effects of DM and ACEI/ARB use were not independent; when both were included in the regression model, neither was statistically significant, and both ORs were smaller than combined OR.Conclusions:When examined separately, both DM and preoperative ACEI/ARB use increased the risk of AKI; however these factors were correlated and were not independent predictors of significantly increased risk. Patients with DM have higher tendency to develop AKI and hence, preoperative renal risk stratification should be done in all patients with DM.