Abstract
Aim: To describe the epidemiological aspects of the patients who died in polyvalent intensive care unit at University Hospital of Brazzaville. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective, cross-sectional study carried out in intensive care unit of University Hospital of Brazzaville, during period from January 2013 to December 2014. All patients who died at the unit regardless of age or sex were included. The parameters studied were age, sex, origin, reason for admission, causes of death, time of death, and length of hospitalization. Data were treated in Excel 2010 and Epi info 2007. Results: During the study period, 419 deaths out of 1121 admissions were recorded, representing a mortality rate of 37.4%. The average age was 46.2 ± 19.7 years with extremes ranging from 14 months to 90 years. The sex ratio was 0.9. Most of the deceased patients came from medical emergencies in 37.6% of the cases. Infectious (17.9%) and neurological (17.4%) pathologies were the most likely to cause death followed by cardiovascular pathologies (12.2%). Causes of death were dominated by severe sepsis and septic shock with 93.4% of infectious pathologies and stroke in 80.8% of neurological pathologies. In 42.3% of cases, the death occurred in the 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. time period. The average length of hospitalization for the deceased patients was 1.4 ± 0.5 days. All parameters studied significantly associated with mortality (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The mortality rate of patients admitted to the polyvalent intensive care unit at University Hospital of Brazzaville was high at 37.4%. Most of these patients were aged 40 years and older, male, with infectious and/or neurological pathologies. All deaths occurred within 48 hours of admission.
Highlights
Medical advances in recent years have made it possible to keep patients who would once have been terminally ill alive for weeks or even months
The mortality rate of patients admitted to the polyvalent intensive care unit at University Hospital of Brazzaville was high at 37.4%
In France, the average mortality rate in intensive care units is estimated at 15% with hospital mortality ranging from 20% to 30% according to studies [5] [6]
Summary
Medical advances in recent years have made it possible to keep patients who would once have been terminally ill alive for weeks or even months. Admission in intensive care unit usually occurs in a context of failure of vital functions exposing at the death. Death is a major event whose evaluation and analysis is necessary to improve the quality of patient care in a hospital in general, and in intensive care in particular [3] [4]. In the United States, the average intensive care unit mortality rate ranges from 8% to 19%, an estimated 500,000 deaths per year. In France, the average mortality rate in intensive care units is estimated at 15% with hospital mortality ranging from 20% to 30% according to studies [5] [6]. In Burkina Faso, in the multipurpose intensive care unit of the Ouagadougou Hospital Center, the rate of mortality achieved 63% of cases with a clear prevalence of medical pathologies [7]
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