Hospital Readmissions Following Endovascular Therapy for Critical Limb Ischemia: Associations With Wound Healing, Major Adverse Limb Events, and Mortality

BackgroundThe significance of hospital readmission after endovascular therapy for critical limb ischemia (CLI) is not well established. We sought to investigate the incidence, timing, and causes of readmissions after endovascular therapy for CLI and whether readmission is associated with major adverse limb events (MALE) or mortality. Methods and ResultsThis was a retrospective study of 252 patients treated with endovascular therapy for CLI. During median follow‐up of 381 days (interquartile range [IQR], 115–718), 140 (56%) were readmitted, with median time to readmission of 83 days (IQR, 33–190). Readmission within 30 days occurred in 14% of patients (n=35; 25% of readmissions). Most readmissions occurred between 30 and 180 days (n=67; 48% of readmissions). The most frequent reason for readmission was unhealed wounds (n=63; 45% of readmissions). Independent predictors of readmission by Cox proportional hazards analysis were unhealed wounds, presence of multiple wounds, age ≥70, female sex, hemodialysis, and history of heart failure (P