Análisis de letalidad en pacientes con diagnóstico de tuberculosis en un centro de alta complejidad en Cali, Colombia

Background. In 2016 tuberculosis (TB) was considered the ninth leading cause of death worldwide and the leading cause of a single infectious agent, with approximately 1.6 million deaths worldwide and a lethality of 15%. Over 95% of cases and deaths are in developing countries like Colombia. Aim: To describe the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of patients who died during TB treatment in a high complexity hospital in Cali, Colombia. Methods: We conducted an analytic retrospective cohort during 2007-2016 in Fundacion Valle del Lili. We included patients with TB diagnosis, who died during TB treatment. Results: From 787 patients with TB, 69 died (8.8%). Fifty nine percent were male, the average of age was 51.9 years. There was diagnosis delay in 51% of the patients and 74% presented pulmonary TB. Sixty four percent 64 died in the first 30 days of the TB diagnosis and 61% of the deaths were attributable to TB. Twenty five percent of patients had TB/HIV coinfection. Elderly patients (> 65 years old) were associated with death in the first 30 days of TB diagnosis (p < 0,001). Discussion: The lethality found in this study was higher than expected (8.8%), the majority of patients had serious comorbidities. Elderly patients were associated with early death. The main pathophysiological mechanism of death was septic shock caused by severe tuberculous pneumonia.