Objective: To know and analyze the main causes of death in an Internal Medicine Department (MI), as well as the impact of AIDS on admissions and mortality rate in such a Department.
Materials and methods: A total of 275 patients out of the 35,521 attended patients from 1990 to 1995 had positive serology to HIV (HIV+). A total of 1,793 deaths were recorded, 42 of which were attributed to AIDS. Clinical and epidemiologic parameters were studied; also, management parameters associated with death were investigated (particularly, those caused by this disease).
Results: The overall mortality rate was 5.04%, where as the mortality rate among HIV+ in patients was 15.27%; the primary causes of death were cardiovascular, tumoral, and respiratory disease by decreasing frequency. AIDS was the first cause of death in patients aged less than 35 years. As for AIDS, the number of admissions on account of this disease had a progressive increase along the study period; the mean age of dead patients (31.6 years) tended to increase in the last few years and to be significantly higher among men (6 years); the mean of hospital stay among HIV+ patients (14.16 days) tended to decrease in the last few years.
Conclusions: AIDS has had a progressive increase and has become the primary cause of hospital death in IM, in patients aged less than 35 years. As the experience with this disease increases, the mean stay of HIV+ patients decreases, although it tends to increase in patients who ultimately die, possibly because of the social changes in the last few years, as disease, and particularly death, is intended to become separated from family home.