Pattern of medical admissions at the Federal Medical Centre, Asaba-a two year review

A two-year retrospective evaluation of the pattern of medical admissions at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Asaba, Delta State, Nigeria.

Case notes of all admissions and deaths in the medical wards between November 2005 and October 2007 were retrieved and reviewed. The mean, standard deviation and percentages of relevant data were derived and presented in simple descriptive statistics.

One thousand, eight hundred and sixty patients were admitted over the study period. One thousand and eight of these [1008; 54.2%], were male, while eight hundred and fifty two [850; 45.8%] were female, making a female/male ratio of 1:1.18.The patients ages ranged between fifteen and ninety years, with a mean of 51.56 +/- 18.35 years. The age range of male patients ranged from 16 to 88 years, with a mean of 55.55 +/- 17.99 years, while that of the female patients ranged from 15 to 90 years, with a mean of 57.14 +/- 13.79.The length of stay in the ward ranged from 1 to 97 days, with a mean of 10.32 +/- 10.93 days. There were 23.25 patients per bed per year and a bed occupancy rate of 65.74%. There were 240 deaths [12.90% of total admissions]. The interval between admission and death ranged between 1 and 31 days, with a mean of 7.14 +/- 6.7 days. One hundred and twenty four patients [124; 6.7%] were referred to other health facilities, while ninety six [96; 5.2%] left against medical advice.The commonest causes of admission in males was hypertension, diabetes mellitus and HIV, while in females, it was HIV, hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Commonest causes of death in males were hypertension, HIV and diabetes, while in female subjects, it was HIV, hypertension and diabetes.

Non-communicable diseases- [hypertension, diabetes mellitus] and HIV/AIDS were the major causes of admissions and death in both genders.