Stroke: Lethality and Associated Factors in the Internal Medicine Intensive Care Unit at the University Clinics of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo

Background and Aims: Stroke is a scourge and one of the main threats to public health (PH). the present study aims to research the lethality of stroke as well as its determinants at the University Clinics of Kinshasa (UCK).

Materials and Methods: This study of descriptive and analytical clinical case series was carried from January to December 2019 at the UCK Internal Medicine Intensive Care Unit, a convenience type sampling. Logistic regression was used to search for factors associated with stroke lethality and the value of p<0.05 was chosen as the statistical significance level.

Results: Out of a total of 537 patients admitted, 60 had a confirmed diagnosis of strokes, i.e. 11.17%, their average age was 66 ± 10.6 years (range 42 to 90 years), men were more numerous than women (68.3% n=41/60 versus 31.7% n=19/60), the ischemic type was predominant with 65% (39/60). The cardiovascular risk factors identified were high blood pressure (HBP), tobacco, alcohol, diabetes mellitus (DM), previous stroke, heart failure and myocardial infarction in the respective proportions of 70%, 60%, 45 %, 28.3%, 28.3%, 4%, and 3.3%. A lethality of 55% was found with associated factors: coma, fever and sepsis.

Conclusion: A lethality of 55% has just been found in the Intensive Care Department of Internal Medicine of the UCK with the associated factors: coma, fever and sepsis.