title: The burden of inpatient neurologic disease in two Ethiopian hospitals.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To define the burden of inpatient neurologic disease seen in Ethiopian teaching hospitals.
  
  
  METHODS
  We reviewed records of all medical inpatients admitted over a 6-month period to two teaching hospitals, one with and one without neurologists.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Neurologic cases made up 18.0% and 24.7% of all medical admissions. The mortality rates were 21.8% and 34.7%. Noninfectious diseases were 36.7% and 31.7% of neurologic cases, but unknown etiologies made up 42.2% and 29.0% of all cases. Of total cases, only 42.9% and 24.1% had at least a high level of diagnostic certainty.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients with neurologic disease make up a substantial minority of medical inpatients in Ethiopia. Noninfectious neurologic disease is at least as common as infectious neurologic disease. Reaching a well-defined final diagnosis occurs in only a minority of cases. Areas for improving the mortality rate include improving the barriers to diagnostic certainty and increasing treatment options for Ethiopian patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, 200 First Street SW, Rochester, MN 55905, USA. bower.james@mayo.edu
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Bower
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Asmera
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zebenigus
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sandroni
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Bower
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zenebe
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005002:Ethiopia / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000401:mortality*; D015995:Prevalence; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D012307:Risk Factors; D016019:Survival Analysis; D015996:Survival Rate