Tuberculosis unit: study of 10 years of activity (1999–2009)

Abstract

SettingThe Pulmonology Service of a Central Hospital in Lisbon created a Unit dedicated to the treatment of tuberculosis (TB). ObjectivesCasuistic analysis and assessment of the predictive factors for in-hospital mortality, over a 10-year period. DesignRetrospective study, from April 1999 to September 2009, through the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences application for binary logistic regression. ResultsIn a total of 1917 patients, most were male (n=1450; 76%), Caucasian (76.6%), with an average age of 43±15.2 years, and 19.8% were immigrants. The retreatments were responsible for 26% of the hospitalizations. The presence of comorbidities was detected in 85.7%, particularly HIV infection (34.7%). The multidrug-resistant (MDR) and the extensively drug resistant (XDR) TB occurred in 6.6% and 6.8%, respectively. The average delay was 28.5±54.8 days, with the mortality rate at 8.6%. The mortality risk was more significant amongst men (OR 1.8; 95% CI 1.16–2.90; p<0.01), in patients with HIV infection (OR 3.7; 95% CI 2.47–5.49; p<0.001), and amongst those who presented MDR TB (OR 2.5; 95% CI 1.24–5.15; p<0.01) and XDR TB (OR 5.5; 95% CI 3.14–9.58; p<0.001). ConclusionA high percentage of patients presented comorbidities, namely HIV infection. The main factors associated with mortality were HIV infection, XDR TB and MDR TB.