Journal of Nursing & Care

To Be Safe at Home or at Hospital After Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation - Why Readmission to Hospital

Abstract

Anncarin Svanberg

Background: Chemotherapy in connecting with autologous stem cell transplantation (SCT) is an established treatment for patients diagnosed with myeloma and lymphoma. Chemotherapy has side effects nausea/vomiting, infection, diarrhoea, fatigue and oral mucositis. SCT often requires hospitalization for weeks. Today it is common to treat patients in an outpatient care in combination with visits at the clinic/ward. Despite experience about outpatient care in connection with SCT, it is still a small proportion of patients who are treated on an outpatient basis. Reasons to readmit unplanned from homecare to hospital are mainly incidence of infection.

Purpose: To investigate in what extend patients undergoing autologous SCT, received an outpatient care or care at a University hospital in Sweden during transplant period and if the treatment at outpatient care was interrupted to study the reason for readmitting to hospital care, also to compare intra venous (iv) treatment with antibiotics or total parenteral nutrition and length of hospital stay.

Methods: The study was a quantitative, retrospective, descriptive design. A review from medical and nursing records of 88 adult patients who underwent autologous SCT in 2013-2014 and treated at a University Hospital in Sweden.

Results: Thirty-nine patients were cared for outside hospital at home/home-like environment and 28 of them were readmitted to hospital. Forty-nine was cared for at hospital ward. The results showed that the main reason of readmission to hospital was related to nausea/vomiting, oral mucositis, stomach problem or other reason. No patients treated outside the hospital in the home/home-like environment the entire post-transplant period (n=11) needed total parenteral nutrition in contrast to patients readmitted to hospital (n=28) where 7 patients needed total parenteral nutrition. Among patients cared for at hospital ward during the entire post- transplant period (n=49), 17 patients needed total parenteral nutrition.

Conclusion: Staying at home during the transplant period leads to less total parenteral nutrition, iv antibiotics and fewer days in the hospital.

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