A systematic review of outcomes associated with patients admitted to hospital with emergency haematuria

Abstract

Objective

Unscheduled admission for haematuria accounts for 15% of all urological emergencies with over 25 000 patients admitted each year in the UK. It is associated with prolonged admission and poor clinical outcomes. This systematic review aims to determine current management strategies and outcomes in these patients.

Methods

A systematic search was performed in October 2023 across MEDLINE, EMBASE and Web of Science for randomised controlled trials and retrospective and prospective observational studies assessing the management of patients admitted as an emergency with haematuria. The primary outcome measure was the length of stay (LoS). Secondary outcomes included hospital readmission, mortality and health resource use.

Results

Three eligible publications with a total of 219 patients were identified. Mean length of stay was 5.8 days. The pooled mean age of unscheduled emergency haematuria was 74.8 years and 87.9% of patients were male. Bladder cancer was present in 17% of patients and, similarly, prostate cancer was present in 17% of patients.

Conclusions

Unscheduled admission for haematuria is associated with long LoS. This systematic review has demonstrated a lack of data reporting outcomes of unscheduled haematuria and its management strategies. There is a need to perform large-scale prospective studies to better understand this cohort of patients.