Cardiac emergencies in a Nigerian hospital: Data from the Abeokuta heart disease registry

Abstract

Background: The emergency room is most often the gateway to many hospitals and health facilities. The spectrum of medical disease (including cardiac disease) in this department is often a reflection of the pattern of diseases in the immediate environment. Objective: The aim of this study therefore is to describe the spectrum of cardiac diseases presenting at the emergency room of Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria. Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of a prospectively acquired data over a period of 24 months (January 2006 to December 2007) and was conducted at the Emergency Department of the Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta, Nigeria. All cardiac cases presenting to the centre during the period of the study were consecutively captured using structured and uniform case report form. Data collected include the patient's bio data, data of admission as well as clinical diagnosis. Disease classifications were based on International Classification of Disease-10. Results: A total of 414 patients classified as cardiac presented to the medical emergency room between January 2006 and December 2007. This constituted 17.4% of all medical cases seen at this department during this period. There were 208 men (50.2%) and 206 women (49.8%). The mean age of all the subjects was 54.7±14.6 (range 15-90 years). Majority of the patients (48.5%) were between the ages of 40 years and 59 years. The most common reasons for cardiac related admissions include severe hypertension, acute heart failure or acute left ventricular heart failure. Conclusions: Cardiac related admissions in the emergency room in Abeokuta are related to hypertension and its complication-heart failure. Prevention as well as management of cardiac diseases should be tailored to hypertension and its associated risk factors. Facilities for management of hypertension and heart failure should be provided in our emergency room.