[Reasons for admission of elderly people in reanimation in the Gabriel Touré teaching hospital of Bamako].

INTRODUCTION

Reanimation consists of the taking care of patients of all ages presenting or likely to present one or more acute failures directly affecting their likelihood of survival. According to the Society of Reanimation of the French Languages in 2012, in the United States 50% of the patients admitted in reanimation have more than 65 years whereas in France, the patients older than 80 years represent more than 10% of the admissions of the intensive care units.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the reasons for admission of the elderly patients in reanimation of the Gabriel Touré teaching hospital.

PATIENTS AND METHOD

A cross-sectional study was conducted from October 2010 to September 2011 in the Gabriel Touré teaching hospital of Bamako. Patients aged 65 year old and up were included. All patients were the subject of a meticulous clinical examination. Data graphing was done using Excel. The analysis of the data was made on the SPSS 17.0 software. The statistical test used was Chi with a significance fixed to P = 0, 05.

RESULTS

During the period of study, the data of 95 elderly people was collected for 501 admissions (18.9%); the 65 to 74 years old age bracket represented 63.3% (figure 1). The sex-ratio was 1.4 in favour of men. Mental deterioration was the principal cause for admission in 65.3% of the cases. Cerebral vascular accidents were the most encountered pathology with 40.7% of cases. The most common noted prognosis was the likelihood of intervention complications.

CONCLUSION

The most common admission factors were mental deterioration, respiratory distress syndrome. The prognosis is conservative considering the patients' old age, medical pathology, and a Glasgow score inferior to 8 at the time of admission.