Rates, Diagnoses, and Predictors of Unplanned 30-Day Readmissions of Critical Care Survivors Hospitalized for Lung Involvement in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: An Analysis of National Representative US Readmissions Data

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune disease that frequently involves the lungs, contributing to significant morbidity in hospitalized patients. Critical care survivors with lung involvement in SLE are at particularly high risk for unplanned hospital readmissions, which can reflect the complexity of their disease, which often affects multiple organs and requires immunosuppressive therapy that increases infection risk. Severe pulmonary complications, critical illness sequelae, and challenges in medication adherence or follow-up care further contribute to their vulnerability. These factors result in frequent complications and flare-ups, making unplanned readmissions common in this population. This study assessed rates, most common reasons, and predictors of all-cause and SLE-related 30-day readmission among critically ill patients hospitalized for lung involvement in SLE. We analyzed the 2021 National Readmissions Database. Critically ill non-elective adult hospitalizations for lung involvement in SLE were identified for analysis using a combination of the ICD-10 diagnostic code for SLE with lung involvement (M32.13) and presence of any procedure codes for mechanical ventilation, tracheostomy, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or bronchoscopy. Non-lung-related SLE admissions, non-SLE-related lung disorders, patients with concomitant COPD, history of COVID-19 or severe asthma, patients transferred in from other hospitals or admitted for