Abstract

NORONHA, Marina Ferreira de  and  CAMPOS, Hisbello S. Óbitos por asma nos hospitais do Sistema Único de Saúde. Bol. Pneumol. Sanit. [online]. 2002, vol.10, n.1, pp.41-48. ISSN 0103-460X.

Asthma deaths are rare and considered "sentinel-events" of the medical attention quality, as the major part of them could be avoided if assistance was adequated. Regularly, during the last decades, around 70% of asthma deaths occured in hospitaIs. In this study, the authors tried to analyze the hospitalar deaths from asthma. Analyzes included proportional mortality, hospitalar mortality, mortality rates and the use of intensive care in the public hospitaIs and in the private hospitals financed by the govern during the year of 1996. In that year, 1033 hospitalar deaths from asthma were notified, what meant 2% of all deaths from respiratory diseases. Asthma hospitalar mortality was higher among those below one year of age and those older than 40, and in the states of São Paulo, Espírito Santo, Bahia, Santa Catarina e Distrito Federal. The authors considered that Intensive Care Units were underused and that there are signs indicating problems in the quality of the hospitalar assistance to the patients with severe asthma exacerbations. Probably, there were 1) mistakes in the interpretation of the severity ofthe exacerbation both by the patients and/or their relatives, as by the health professionals, resulting either in delay for searching help or for adopting intensive measures; 2) inadequate choice ofhospital; 3) inadequate medical prescription and 4) medical assistance in hospitals without the technological resources needed according to the patients ' conditions. Based on this analyse, recomendations for reducing hospitalar asthma deaths are made.

Keywords : hospitalar asthma deaths; asthma deaths and use of ICU.

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