A 5-year review of deaths in the hospital wards after discharge from an Intensive Care Unit in Enugu, Nigeria

Abstract

Aims: To study the causes and incidence of deaths in patients who died in the ward after discharge from the intensive care unit (ICU) of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu, Nigeria, from January 1998 to December 2002.
Methods: This is a retrospective study. The medical records of those who died in the wards following discharge from the ICU were reviewed. The causes of death, times in ICU and hospital, admission diagnosis, and demographics were compared.
Results: Thirty-six (2%) of the 1800 admissions to ICU died in the ward following discharge from ICU. Eight (25%) of these patients were debilitated with more than one organ disease. Twenty percent (7 persons) had suffered severe hypoxic-ischaemic cerebral damage secondary to a pre-ICU cardiac arrest. Other major causes of death were cerebrovascular accidents, renal failure, and respiratory failure.
Conculusion: Very few (2%) patients died in the wards after discharge from the ICU. No apparent treatment deficiencies causing death were detected. Deaths could be largely attributed to ongoing severe organ disease for which the patient was originally admitted to ICU.


Keywords: Intensive-Care-Unit discharge; deaths in wards.

Tropical Journal of Medical Research Vol. 10(1) 2006: pp.28-30