There has been a decrease in hospital discharges for sepsis, skin, and soft tissue infections, and urinary tract infections (UTIs) among patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) during the past several years, according to a study presented virtually at the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology. Vagishwari Murugesan, MD, and colleagues investigated national trends in serious infections among the US patients with PsA using National Inpatient Sample data (2012-2017). A total of 50,700 hospital discharge diagnoses of PsA in 2012 included 125 patients diagnosed with pneumonia, 230 with sepsis, 312 with skin or soft tissue infection, and 174 with a UTI. By comparison, in 2017, there were 179,400 discharge diagnoses of PsA, with 344 patients diagnosed with pneumonia, 374 with sepsis, 681 with skin and soft tissue infection, and 348 with a UTI. Over time, there was a statistically significant drop in hospital discharges for sepsis, skin and soft tissue infections, and UTI when adjusting for age, but no statistical differences were noted for pneumonia.
