COPD exacerbation admissions: Analysis of demographics and mortality

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a characterized by exacerbations (COPD-E) during the course of the disease. COPD-E are a well known cause of morbidity and mortality. We analized retrospectively all the patients admitted to our hospital for COPD-E from january 2009 to December 2011. There were 264 admissions for COPD-E in the admiting diagnosis: 88 were excluded because of an other dignosis was stablished during the hopsital course (CAP, Asthma, heart failure, etc), 71 were eliminated because of insuficient data, thus only 105 patients were able to be analized. From the 105 COPD-E admissions, 48, 1 % had a previous COPD-E hospitalization, 32,4% was during the previous year, 29,4% had a previous ICU admission for COPD-E. A prior COPD diagnosis was known by the patients in 77.5% of the admitions, of the patients who knew their severity, 2.9% was mild, 6,9% was moderate, 24.5% was severe, 11.8% was very severe, the rest was unkown by the patients. Immunizations: 24,5% had a flu shot during the previous year and 22.5% pneumococcal vaccine. During the hospital course 26 patients died (24,7%), 6 (5,7 %)because of the COPD-E and 20 (19%) because of other cause (heart failure, nosocomial pneumonia,etc). Conclusions: Patients admited for COPD-E have a 24,7% death rate during the hospitalization, almost half of them had a previous admission for COPD-E. There was a highly low prehospital treatment rate for COPD-E and low vaccination rate.