La enfermedad cerebral isquémica en el Hospital Carlos Andrade Marín

Introduction: in Ecuador, Cerebrovascular Disease (CVD) is the second leading cause of death and first cause of disability. Cerebral infarction (stroke) accounts for approximately 85% of patients with CVD. The objective of this paper is to show risk factors, complications and mortality in hospitalized patients with cerebral infarction in the Neurology Ward of the Carlos Andrade Marin Hospital. Materials and methods: an observational study was performed, where electronic medical records (Information System AS 400) of 117 patients who suffered a cerebral infarction verifed by imaging studies between january and december 2011 were analyzed. Results: in the sample it was observed that about 82% of the patients were over 60 years old, with a slightly higher amount of men in relation to women. Among the risk factors hypertension, diabetes mellitus (DM) and smoking habits were found. Atherosclerosis was the most frequent cause. The most affected cardiovascular area was the anterior with a predominance of abnormality in the middle cerebral artery in comparison to the anterior cerebral artery. 44.44% of patients had at least one complication, which appears as the hospitalization time is prolonged. No neurological related complications were the most frequent, and among these, the most common was pneumonia, which was the most frequent leading cause of death. Conclusions: by analyzing the factors that potentially contributed or pneumonia to appear, a significant relationship with atrial fibrillation was statistically found. Mortality in the period observed was about 15%. Only 33% of the deceased had died as a direct result of a neurological complication.