title: Surgical inpatient mortality in a Nigerian Tertiary Hospital.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is paucity of literatures on audit of mortality in the surgical units of tertiary hospitals in the country. This has made the spectrum of mortality not to been known in some of the centers and therefore, there is a great disparity and dearth in apportioning health care services appropriately.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The determination of the pattern of mortality in a surgical unit helps in planning, provision of quality surgical care and prioritizing of limited resources in developing countries.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a retrospective study of all patients who died during admission into surgical wards of our hospital between 2007 and 2012. Data on demography and events leading to death were collected and analyzed from all surgical wards, the emergency unit, surgical outpatients, and theater records.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 527 deaths occurred among the 8230 patients admitted during the 6-year period giving a mortality rate of 6.4%. Three hundred and forty-five (65.5%) were male, while 282 (34.5%) were females. The mortality rates in units were as follows: Burn and plastic (23.1%), general surgery (5.5%), neurosurgery (7.9%), urology (6.0%), orthopedics (3.8%), pediatric surgery (3.4%), and cardiothoracic surgery (11.9%). The yearly mortality rate were as follows, respectively: 2007 (7.1%), 2008 (6.0%), 2009 (4.5%), 2010 (6.5%), 2011 (7.2%), and 2012 (7.5%). About 84.6% of the patients died within 1 month on admission. The leading causes of mortality were trauma (41.8%) and cancer (32.4%). Most of the deaths (64.9%) occurred between 20- and 70-year-old.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Trauma and cancer constitute a great deal of health burden in our region. Strong legislation and screenings with timely interventions are required.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Division of Urology, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
authors.forename: O N
authors.initials: ON
authors.lastname: Ekeke
authors.forename: K E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Okonta
authors.forename: P O
authors.initials: PO
authors.lastname: Igwe
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D017052:Hospital Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D006760:Hospitalization; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007297:Inpatients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009549:Nigeria; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012042:Registries / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013503:Surgery Department, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D062606:Tertiary Care Centers; D055815:Young Adult