Overview of the Emergency Department of Internal Medicine of the HUEH during the months of April and May 2021

Introduction

This is a simple descriptive analysis of cases received in the Internal Medicine Department of the HUEH during our visit. The objective is to present the demographic characteristics of the main diagnoses.

Methodology

The data were revealed from the emergency book and the period considered was from April 1 to 22, 2021, and then from May 3 to 30, 2021, due to a work stoppage. 97 patients were recorded in the notebook for the period. SPSS and Excel were used for the analyses.

Results

The mean age of the patients was 56.82±16.85 years. Of these 57.7% were in the 30-65 age group, and only 8.2% were under 30 years. More than half were male (52.6%). However, women were older than men (59.60±16.78 years vs 54.32±16.67 years) (Figure 1). About the origin, 40.2% came from the Western department, and 13.4% were from the South. (Table 1) Only 21.6% of patients were referred. Of these referred patients 38.1% came from the West department, 19.0% from the Centre department, and 14.3% from Artibonite. 81.4% of the patients received were hospitalized and 12.4% were kept for observation.

More than half (54%) had hypertension as a history, and 33% had diabetes and hypertension combined. The 5 main pathologies diagnosed were: global D/C (29.9%); stroke including Sylvian infarction (15.5%); decompensated type 2 diabetes (11.3%); CKD (10.3%) and sepsis (6.2%). Almost one-third of the hospitalizations were global D/C class IV (29.9%), 17.7% had Sylvian infarction, 12.7% had CKD, 11.4% decompensated diabetes, and 7.6% had sepsis.

Among the decompensated cardiac patients, 53.8% were between 30 and 65 years, only 7.7% were younger than 30 years, and 59.2% were men. For Sylvian infarction, 78.5% were in the 30-65 age group and more than half (53.3%) were women. In patients with decompensated diabetes, 63.6% were between 30-65 years of age and 54.5% were men. 70% of CKD patients were in the 30-65 age group, and more men (70%) thanwomen (30%). It is worth noting that 20% of these patients were under 30 years of age. Sepsis cases were predominantly in women (66.6%).

Conclusion

We are in the midst of an epidemiological transition in which infectious pathologies no longer predominate, but cardiovascular ones. We have observed that stroke is the second cause of hospitalization at the HUEH, other studies are needed to confirm this observation, in the meantime, it is an obligation that the HUEH is equipped to meet its primary objective which is a tertiary care and training oriented according to the epidemiological needs of the country, hence the need to strengthen the Cardiology unit and to put a Neurology unit with an imaging center .