title: [Analises of the mortality in aged in an Internal Medicine Department].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To establish the characteristics of the deceased and the death causes.
  
  
  METHODS
  Transversal study descriptive, with intake patients elder than 65 years old in an Internal Medicine Department. The variables analized were: age, sex, intake date, discharge date, days of hospital stay, chronic disease previous, admission cause, deceased, diagnoses. The statistical analysis was performed with measures of central tendency and of standard deviation, Chi-cuadrado, Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon and Kruskal-Wallis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During the revised year, there are 770 patients intaked in Internal Medicine Department and 128 exitus (16.6%). The global average death age was 78.3 +/- 1.3 years: 53.1% (0.44-0.62; p = 0.48) were men and 46.9% were women. The average death intake days was 13.3 +/- 1.7 days (p < 0.001), 3.9% died in less than forty-eight hours after hospitalization. The most frequent admission cause was: dyspnea (46.1%). The most frequent chronic diseases were: ischemic and hypertensive heart disease (18.8%) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The most frequent death cause was respiratory tract infection (43.8%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The prevalence cardiac and pulmonary disease prevalence is high, these diseases are the of the most frequent causes hospital mortality.
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Medicina Interna, Hospital Clínico de Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña. sergiocinza@mundo-r.com
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cinza Sanjurjo
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cabarcos Ortiz de Barrón
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nieto Pol
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Torre Carballada
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002423:Cause of Death; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006748:Hospital Departments; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine; D008297:Male; D009026:Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D012621:Seasons