An 8-year retrospective review of gastrointestinal medical emergency conditions at a tertiary health facility in Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Globally, gastrointestinal emergency conditions constitute a considerable proportion of the medical emergency cases seen in the emergency room.

Objective: This study investigated the spectrum of gastrointestinal medical emergency conditions seen in the emergency room of Federal Teaching Hospital Ido-Ekiti, Nigeria.

Materials and Methods: The emergency room admission register was used to obtain the following information: Age, Sex, Diagnosis, Year of admission and the Outcome. The period under review was 1st January 2009 to 31st December 2016. The data was analyzed using the SPSS version 21.0 software package.

Results: A total number of 5,912 patients with medical emergency conditions were admitted into the emergency room during the period under review, out of which 813(13.7%) were gastrointestinal medical emergency conditions. The age range of the patients was 15 to 100years with a mean(±SD) of 47.32±18.938. Acute exacerbation of acid peptic disorders(29.3%) was the most common indication for emergency room admission followed by acute gastroenteritis(26.8%) and decompensated chronic liver disease(14.3%). Decompensated chronic liver disease and upper gastrointestinal bleeding were the conditions with the highest mortality being 31.8% and 29.5% respectively.

Conclusion: Gastrointestinal medical conditions are common indications for emergency admission. Measures should be taken to avoid these preventable conditions in a bid to reduce their morbidity and mortality.

Keywords: gastrointestinal, medical, emergency room