Características clínicas de pacientes ingresados con diagnóstico de insuficiencia cardiaca en un Hospital de la Familia y la Comunidad

INTRODUCTION: Heart Failure is very frequent in our adultpopulation. It causes a great number of hospitalizations a yearand means an important expense in health. There is a clear relationshipbetween diverse demographic factors and the development,evolution and prognosis of heart failure, being one of theaccepted the age and of the discussed the sex. The objective ofthis study was to characterize hospitalized patients with heartfailure in the Department of Medicine of the Familia y ComunidadHospital of Mulchén, Chile, in 2011. MATERIAL ANDMETHOD: Retrospective, observational and descriptive study,there were checked the records of admission-discharge of thedepartment and were selected all the patients with heart failurediagnosis at the income analyzing variables as age, sex, daysand others. Included a total of 162 patients; 84 males (51.85%).RESULTS: The ages ranged from 38 to 96 years, with an averageof 67 years, with a 73.45% of patients 60 years or older. Thelength of hospitalization ranged between 3 and 19 days, withan average of 11 days. Almost 80 % of the patients came fromto Emergency Department. The most frequent associated diagnoseswere hypertension/hypertensive cardiomyopathy (22%)and coronary heart disease (11.2 %). There were 12 deaths (7%).55% of patients were affiliated to Fondo Nacional de Salud B.DISCUSSION: We conclude that the results obtained are concordantwith those described in the literature for the general populationand provide useful data to confront the patient with heartfailure served in our service.