[Early discharge in uncomplicated acute myocardial infarction].

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES

The length of hospital stay for uncomplicated myocardial infarction is still a debatable issue. Our study tries to establish the rate of patients amenable early discharged and the safety of this practice.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

We studied retrospectively the clinical features, in-hospital events and 30-day follow up of 238 patients discharged early (5 or 6 days) during the last three years. These patients were compared with the remaining group of 929 patients discharged after a conventional stay (mean 10.4 days) in the same time frame.

RESULTS

The mean hospital stay in the early discharged group was 5.4 days. They had no ischemic, arrhythmic or haemodynamic complications in the acute phase. In the 30-day follow up there was only one death (at the 14 th post-myocardial infarction day) and 17 readmissions to the hospital, none with re-infarction. By contrast, there were 14 deaths and 43 readmissions among the patients with the standard stay at the hospital.

CONCLUSIONS

At least 20% of patients with uncomplicated myocardial infarction can be discharged early. This practice seems to be safe in low risk groups, and is not associated with a higher rate of complications when compared with longer hospital stays.