Pneumonias in a medical ward - A retrospective study

Abstract

The authors review the pneumonia cases ad­mitted in an Internai Medicine Department of a Central Hospital in Oporto - Portugal from January to December 1994. All the patients whose dis­charge diagnosis included the word "pneumonia" were included The prevalence of respiratory di­seases and, among these, the pneumonia has been recorded. They have studied the number of ca­ses, its distribution by age and sex groups, rele­vant clinical data for diagnosis mentioned in the admission notes, prevalence of coexistent disea­ses, smoking, radiologic localization, other com­plementary tests (chest x-ray, sputum cultures, broncofibroscopy), most used antibiotic therapy and its changes, clinical outcome, average duration of stay, mortality and global results.

Pneumonia was a frequent cause of admission (9,3%), mainly male patients (63,2%), and affec­ted females were older. Fever (67,2%) and cough (52,7%) were the clinical data most commonly found Sputum cultures were positive in 18,2% and blood cultures in 13,6%. The right lung (39,3%) and the inferior lobes were more commonly affected Heart failure (24,8%), diabetes mellitus (21,1%), COPD (20,2%), chronic alchoolism (14,7%) are the most commun associated diseases. Smokers ac­ count for 17,2% of studied cases. Beta-lactamic antibiotics alone or associated to amicacin, or erithromycin were the therapeutic choice in most cases. Global results were good with 85,2% of im­ provement or cure, and average time of stay was 12,9 days.