Purpose: The admissions of nonagenarians to internal medicine wards are rising. The aim of this study was to analyse the causes of ward admission and blood and renal parameters as potential mortality predictors in this age group.
Patients and methods: Out of 1140 patients, 111 nonagenarians aged 90+ admitted to the Internal Medicine Ward in one general hospital in Poznan in 2019 were studied. Medical records of these patients were analysed to find factors attributable to the hospitalisation.
Results: The leading causes of admission were infections and cardiovascular diseases, and the main causes of death were cardiovascular diseases. Elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) level was a statistically significant death predictor. Equally, decreased albumin level was found to be a mortality predictor. No such relationships were obtained for haematological or renal parameters.
Conclusion: Our study uniquely analysed a relatively large group of hospitalised nonagenarians and identified those who need particular attention in the ward by identifying those with the highest risk of death. CRP and albumin levels may serve as useful indicators of in-hospital mortality in this age group.
Keywords: CRP; albumin level; mortality predictor; nonagenarians.
© 2023 Mazurkiewicz et al.