Analysis of the Impact of Comorbidities on Endometrial Lesions Using the Charlson Comorbidity Index in Western Romania

Abstract

Background and Objectives: This retrospective study aimed to identify the main comorbidities found in gynecological patients hospitalized for endometrial lesions and to analyze the relationships between these comorbidities and each type of endometrial lesion. The Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) was calculated, thus assessing the patient’s probability of survival in relation to the underlying disease and the existing comorbidities. Materials and Methods: During 2015–2019, 594 cases hospitalized for vaginal bleeding outside of pregnancy were included in the research. For all cases, the frequency of comorbidities was calculated, applying the Cox proportional hazard model, considering the hospitalizations (from the following year after the first outpatient or hospital assessment) as a dependent variable; age and comorbidities were considered as independent variables. Results: Analysis of variance (ANOVA) for mean age of patients enrolled after diagnosis and multiple comparisons (via the Tukey post-hoc test) indicate significant differences (p < 0.05) between the average age for endometrial cancer (EC) and that for the typical endometrial hyperplasia or other diagnoses. The most common comorbidities were hypertension (62.28%), obesity (35.01%), and diabetes (22.89%), followed by cardiovascular disease. An intensely negative correlation (r = −0.715281634) was obtained between the percentage values of comorbidities present in EC and other endometrial lesions. The lowest chances of survival were calculated for 88 (14.81% of the total) patients over 50 years (the probability of survival in the next 10 years being between 0 and 21%). The chances of survival at 10 years are moderately negatively correlated with age (sample size = 594, r = −0.6706, p < 0.0001, 95% confidence interval (CI) for r having values from −0.7126 to −0.6238) and strongly negatively correlated with the CCI (r = −0.9359, p < 0.0001, 95% CI for r being in the range −0.9452 to −0.9251). Conclusions: Using CCI in endometrial lesions is necessary to compare the estimated risk of EC mortality with other medical conditions.