[Hospital mortality at the internal medicine service of a local hospital]

We conducted a retrospective study of the hospital mortality in a service of Internal Medicine at the Hospital de Barbastro during the years 1991 and 1992, recording 97 deaths during 1991 and 87 during 1992, with a mortality rate of 6.7% and 6.6% respectively. The mean age was 77.2% +/- 9 years with a 93% > or = 65 years. The average length of stay of the dead patients was 8.9 days. Cardiovascular diseases were the most frequent cause of death (41.85%), followed by respiratory diseases (17.93%) and neoplasias (15.76%). CVA was the single most frequent disease (17.9%). Ten autopsies (5.4%) were performed. In 16 cases (8.6%), we obtained data suggesting iatrogenesis, which in 7 cases (3.8%) clearly contributed to the direct cause of death.