Recent trends in diabetic and non-diabetic neuropathies: a retrospective hospital-based nation-wide cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this research was to evaluate the trends in diabetic and non-diabetic neuropathies in a hospital-based cohort between 2010 and 2019 in Romania.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed cases with a primary or secondary discharge ICD-10 diagnoses codes of neuropathy reported throughout Romania.

RESULTS: 1,725,729 hospitalizations with a diagnosis of neuropathy (44.6% diabetic neuropathy and 55.4% nondiabetic neuropathy) were identified. Women accounted for more diabetic neuropathy (52.1%) and men for nondiabetic neuropathy cases (61.0%). Incidence rate showed an increasing trend during the index period, by a mean rate of 4.3%/year for nondiabetic neuropathies and 1.4%/year for diabetic neuropathies. Type 2 diabetes was responsible for the overall increase in diabetic neuropathy, whereas in type 1 diabetes the incidence rate decreased; in both types of diabetes, diabetic polyneuropathy was predominant, while autonomic neuropathy has an incidence rate of 10 to 20 times lower than polyneuropathy. Nondiabetic neuropathies increased mainly due to inflammatory polyneuropathies (+3.8%) and uremic neuropathy (+10.3%).

CONCLUSIONS: Using a nationally representative database of hospital-admitted cases, we found that diabetic and nondiabetic neuropathies increased from 2010 to 2019. The main contributors were type 2 diabetes, inflammatory and uremic neuropathy.