Inpatient burden, costs, and characteristics of peripheral artery disease in SloveniaFurlan, Tjaša (Avtor) Jug, Borut (Avtor) Farkaš-Lainščak, Jerneja (Avtor) Gavrić, Dalibor (Avtor) Ograjenšek, Irena (Avtor) Došenović Bonča, Petra (Avtor) peripheral artery diseasechronic limb-threatening ischemiaintermittent claudicationhospitalisationmortalityAims: We assessed inpatient burden, costs, demographics, co-morbidity patterns, and outcomes of peripheral artery disease (PAD) in Slovenia. Methods: We included patients hospitalised for PAD (primary diagnosis international classification of disease, tenth revision code I70.2–I70.9) in Slovenia between January 1st, 2015, and December 31st, 2022. We estimated crude and age-standardised hospitalisation rates, hospitalisation reimbursement costs, patient characteristics (age and sex distribution, disease severity and prevalence of co-morbidities), uptake of revascularisation, major amputations and in-hospital mortality. Results: We included 15,978 patients (60% men, median age 72 years, 32% chronic limb-threatening ischemia) with 27,139 hospital episodes yielding a mean of ~3,400 hospitalisations per year (hospitalisation rate 161 per 100,000/year). Median direct cost (inflation-adjusted to 2025) per hospital episode was €3,177, yielding total costs of €10.8 million/year. The most common co-morbidities were arterial hypertension (35%), dyslipidemia (21%) and diabetes mellitus (19%), with a significantly higher prevalence in patients with chronic limb-threatening ischaemia. During the observation period, revascularisation procedures increased from 77.5% to 80.2%, while major amputations decreased from 13.2% to 7.9% and mortality decreased from 5.0% to 3.3%. Conclusion: The inpatient burden of PAD is considerable in Slovenia. Patients hospitalised for PAD have a high burden of co-morbidities, especially when presenting with chronic limb-threatening ischaemia; nonetheless, in-hospital major amputations and mortality decreased substantially over the last decade.20262026-02-26 21:34:08Neznano179917slVse slovenske bolnišnice2015-2022