Análisis crítico de la mortalidad en un servicio de Angiología y Cirugía Vascular

Introduction: An analysis of the different surgical departments historically shows that vascular surgery has the highest mortality rates. This occurs as a result of two factors: firstly, due to patient characteristics, usually of advanced age and having multiple associated diseases, and secondly because of the type of surgical procedures performed. Objectives: To analyse mortality in our department and try to detect those patients that will present with more complications and consequently poor prognosis. Methods: Patients who had died during a 6 year period were included consecutively. A descriptive analysis including variables as demographic features, vascular risk factors, associated diseases, diagnosis at the time of admission, treatment performed and cause of death was performed. Results: From January 2008 to December 2013, 164 patients had died, with a mortality rate of 3.05%. Most of them had critical limb ischaemia (40%) or acute limb ischaemia at the time of hospital admission. Only 56% were given surgical treatments, and 38% were patients that only received palliative cares. Heart disease (80%) was the factor most frequently associated with underlying pathology decompensations. Most patients (43%) died due to multi-organ failure. The large majority (81%) of those who died as result of cardiac illness had undergone surgical treatment. Conclusions: The reality is that mortality rates are high, but we must keep in mind the high number of patients that are admitted just for palliative care. Patients with heart diseases have more decompensations; a reason why they should be closely monitored in order to improve their prognosis. (C) 2016 SEACV. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. All rights reserved.