Segredo MY, Bilbao GK, Acevedo RY, Rovira RLE, Álvarez GI, Martell BNL

Language: Spanish
References: 0
Page: 1-12
PDF size: 144.02 Kb.

ABSTRACT

Introduction: mortality data represent not only the evaluating tools for measuring the risk of death in a population and the impact of diseases on health but also their severity and the population survival.
Objective: to characterize the behavior of infant mortality by main causes of death at "Jose Luis Miranda" pediatric hospital in the 2001-2010 period.
Methods: a cross-sectional and descriptive study was conducted in all patients who died in the abovementioned period. The sample was made up of 369 dead people, and to this end a tailored-made form was applied.
Results: the death rate was 3.2 individuals per every 1 000 discharges from hospital and 0.8 died in the first 48 hours of discharge. In the 10 study years, a total number of 153 children aged less than one year died. Congenital anomalies (43.7 %) were the most frequent cause followed by severe perinatal lesions (31.3 %) and 39 acquired infections (25.5 %). In this ten-year period, 67 congenital anomalies were present (59.7 % for digestive, 23.9 % for cardiovascular and 8.9 and 7.5 % for central nervous system and genitourinary anomalies, respectively).
Conclusions: sepsis, oncological and hematological diseases and congenital anomalies are the most common causes of death. The congenital anomalies, the severe perinatal lesions and the acquired infections are the most frequent causes of infant mortality.