Sudden death in Dakar

Abstract

Sudden adult death is an instantaneous or rapid death of natural, unexpected or unexpected origin. As a public health issue, the global incidence of sudden death would be 20100 per 100,000 population.The main objective of our study was to assess the incidence of sudden death in Dakar. The specific objectives were to establish the epidemiological profile of sudden death, identify the circumstances of its occurrence and the medical and surgical causes, and identify the factors associated with sudden deaths from cardiovascular causes.It is an observational, descriptive, retrospective study covering a period of 5 years, from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2018. Included in the study were all records of adults (18 years of age and over) who died suddenly, in a health facility or outside it and were autopsied in the morgues of Aristide le Dantec Hospital (HALD) and Idrissa Pouye General Hospital (HOGIP).We found 1133 cases of sudden adult death, or 28 % of autopsies. The annual average was 226.6 cases. Our series consisted of 918 men and 215 women, for a sex ratio of 3.27. The sudden death of the adult was predominantly cardiovascular in origin with 561 cases or 49.5 %. The MI occurred on average at 51.95 years of age with 164 males (84.5 % of MIs) and 30 females (15.5 % of MIs). With regard to pulmonary causes, pulmonary tuberculosis was the leading cause of pulmonary origin with 66 cases or 26.2 %. For digestive causes, generalized acute peritonitis (GAP) was the most frequent cause with 29 cases (38.7 %).The prevention of sudden death is essentially based on cardiovascular disease treatment and prevention. The African context has to deal with weak health promotion, a failure of pre-hospital care and the daily difficulties of hospital care.