We analysed the discharge reports of patients admitted during 1982-1988 to an internal medicine department of a university hospital. There were 927 deaths among 13,913 patients (6.66%); the median age of the persons admitted was 59.50 years while the median age of the patients who died was 72.87 years. Both groups suffered from several afflictions; the most frequent among the hospital-admission group being: blood hypertension, pneumonia, diabetes mellitus, and the group who eventually died: pneumonia, cerebrovascular and neoplastic disease.