Bronchiectasis in Finland: trends in hospital treatment

Abstract

The incidence of bronchiectasis has probably declined in developed countries in recent years, but no reliable statistical data on this are available. The present paper describes the use made of hospital services by bronchiectatic patients in Finland. Data on a total of 12,539 treatment periods for bronchiectasis that had occurred between 1972 and 1992 were collected from the discharge register maintained by the National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (diagnosis 518 in the International Classification of Diseases up to 1986, and 494 from 1987 onwards). The number of admissions, new occurrences of bronchiectasis and days in hospital were calculated by sex and age in relation to the total population at the end of each year. There were 143 and 87 admissions per million inhabitants in 1972 and 1992, respectively. The admissions, new occurrences and the days in hospital all decreased, at annual rates of 1.3, 4.2 and 5.7%, respectively. Thus, where the number of new occurrences was 50 per million persons in 1977, it was 27 per million in 1992. In summary, bronchiectasis-related hospital treatment declined markedly between 1972 and 1992. Trend is attributed to effective treatment of pulmonary infections and the reduction in tuberculosis.

Trends and Burden of Bronchiectasis-Associated Hospitalizations in the United States, 1993-2006

“…5 A Finnish study found the average length of stay for bronchiectasisassociated hospitalizations to be 7 days. 13 A current estimate for the length of bronchiectasis-associated hospitalizations within the United States is not available, nor is the proportion of persons hospitalized with bronchiectasis.…”

Positive expiratory pressure therapy versus other airway clearance techniques for bronchiectasis

“…This condition may affect both children and adults (Chang 2008;Chang 2010;Karadag 2005;Pasteur 2010). The global prevalence is not accurately known but has been estimated to range from 0.5 cases per 100,000 in Finland (Säynäjäkangas 1997) to 1106 cases per 100,000 population over an eight-year period in the United States of America (Seitz 2012). In New Zealand, the reported prevalence is 3.7 per 100,000 population, but this varies according to ethnicity (Twiss 2005), and in Australia, the prevalence amongst indigenous children is 1470 per 100,000 (Chang 2002).…”

Exacerbations in cystic fibrosis: 4 {middle dot} Non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis

“…Bronchiectasis, previously termed an “orphan disease”, is increasingly recognised as a major cause of respiratory morbidity, not only in developing countries1 2 but also in children and adults in affluent countries 3 – 7. Bronchiectasis unrelated to cystic fibrosis (CF) is caused by—or associated with—many aetiologies ranging from congenital/genetic illness (primary immunodeficiency, primary ciliary dyskinesia, Mounier-Kuhn syndrome) to retained airway foreign body.…”