Intracranial Procedures and Expected Frequency of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

Abstract

Background/Aims: To assess the frequency and characteristics of intracranial procedures (ICPs) performed and the number of US residents living with a history of ICP. These data are used to calculate the expected annual number of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) cases among US residents with a history of ICP. Methods: The Nationwide Inpatient Sample provided data on the frequency and types of ICPs, and data from the National Center for Health Statistics was used to produce age-adjusted mortality rates. A model was constructed, which estimated long-term survival and sporadic CJD rates among ICP patients based on procedure type and age. Results: There were an estimated 2,070,488 ICPs in the United States from 1998 to 2007, an average of over 200,000 per year. There were an estimated 2,023,726 US residents in 2013 with a history of ICP in the previous 30 years. In 2013, there was expected to be 4.1 sporadic CJD cases (95% CI 1-8) among people with a history of ICP in the past 30 years. Conclusions: The considerable proportion of US residents living with a history of ICP is important information for retrospective assessments of CJD or any other suspected long-term outcome of ICPs.