In-Hospital Mortality among Patients of Severe Adult Tetanus Presenting with bad Prognostic Factors: A Tertiary Care Hospital Experience
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52206/jsmc.2023.13.2.769Abstract
Background: Tetanus caused by clostridium tetani, despite being a preventable disease, is still posing a significant health hazard to developing countries like Pakistan.
Objective: To determine in-hospital mortality among patients of severe adult tetanus presenting with bad prognostic factors.
Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at the Department of Medicine, Medical Teaching Institution Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar, Pakistan from July 13, 2017, to January 13, 2018, on 176 patients. All severe adult tetanus patients as per Ablett Classification with bad prognostic factors (incubation period <7 days, persistent fever >40o C, persistent tachycardia of >120/min, and no history of post-exposure prophylaxis) were included in the study. Patients with compromised renal functions (urea >108 mg/dl, reduced urine output <50 ml/hr) and already diagnosed neuromuscular junction disorders were excluded from the study. Written informed consent was obtained and patients were enrolled in the study. All patients were immediately worked up with detailed history and clinical examinations and were managed as per ICU protocols and followed within the hospital for mortality.
Results: Mean age of study participants was 47±10.27 years. The majority of study subjects were males (n=102, 58%), un-immunized (n=88, 50%) or partially immunized (n=26, 15%), socioeconomically poor (n=84, 48%), illiterate (n=82, 47%) and from urban areas (n=114, 65%). In-hospital mortality was recorded in 109 (62%) of the study subjects. In hospital mortality was recorded highest in patients with an age range of 41-65 years (n=70/109, 64.22%), males (n=63/109, 57.8%), unimmunized (n=55/109, 50.45%), poor (n=52/109, 47.7%), illiterate (n=51/109, 46.78%) and urban (n=71/109, 65.14%).
Conclusion: In-hospital mortality was high in patients with severe adult tetanus presenting with bad prognostic factors.
Keywords: Clostridium tetani, Hospital Mortality, Severe adult tetanus, Tetanus, Tetanus Antitoxin, Tetanus Toxoid, Trismus, Prognostic Factors.
Additional Files
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 The authors retain the copyrights. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g. in institutional repositories or on their website), as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as greater citation of published work.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Readers may “Share-copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format” and “Adapt-remix, transform, and build upon the material”. The readers must give appropriate credit to the source of the material and indicate if changes were made to the material. Readers may not use the material for commercial purpose. The readers may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
