Aetiology and Short-term Outcome of Altered Level of Consciousness among Patients in Medicine Department of a Tertiary Hospital
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3329/jom.v18i2.33685Keywords:
Altered level of consciousness, Stroke, ADEMAbstract
Background: Altered level of consciousness is a very common medical emergency resulting in considerable mortality & morbidity. Accurate diagnosis & prompt management can reduce the complications to a great extent. There are various aetiologies of impaired consciousness including infective & metabolic causes as well as cerebrovascular accidents. This study described clinical outcomes of the patients relating to specific aetiologies of the illness.
Objectives: To explore the common aetiologies of altered consciousness & to determine the clinical outcomes of the patients after one month in a tertiary level hospital of Bangladesh.
Methods: This hospital based prospective observational study was conducted in Medicine department of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) from December 2013 to May 2014. Sample size was 100 & the data was collected by structured questionnaire. Purposive sampling method was applied using inclusion & exclusion criteria. Statistical analysis of the result was obtained by using SPSS-16.
Results: The mean age of the study patients was found 48.7 years with range from 19-92 years. Majority (58%) of the patients were male. Stroke was identified as the commonest (39%) aetiology of impaired consciousness followed by meningo-encephalitis (19%), septicemia (10%) & poisoning (10%). Among metabolic encephalopathy diabetic ketoacidosis was 3%, hypoglycemia 1% and hepatic, uremic & hypertensive encephalopathy was 3%, 4% & 1% respectively. Overall death rate was higher among patients with stroke (26%), ICSOL (50%), ADEM (50%) than those with meningoencephalitis (5.3%), septicemia (20%) & poisoning (10%).
Conclusion: Infective & metabolic causes of impaired consciousness showed better outcome than structural & vascular aetiologies of brain.
J MEDICINE July 2017; 18 (2) : 80-85
Downloads
28
27
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).