Deaths in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis: an analysis of a chest diseases hospital in Istanbul, Turkey.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the medical records of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in order to determine the inhospital mortality rate. MATERIALS AND METHODS Medical records of 22,651 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis admitted to Gulhane Military Medical Academia, Camlica Chest Diseases Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey from 1977 to 1999 were examined. RESULTS Of the 22,651 patients, 133 (0.58%) died: 117 male and 16 female, mean age 41.5 +/- 20.7 years. The mean length of hospital stay was 15.8 +/- 25.9 days and it increased yearly (p = 0.004). There was no significant difference in hospital mortality rate of tuberculosis within years. Forty-nine patients had chronic and/or far advanced tuberculosis, 36 of them had concomitant diseases. Thirteen patients had miliary and/or tuberculous meningitis, 3 multi drug-resistant tuberculosis, another 3 had pneumothorax, and 2 empyema. These patients had significantly lower prognostic nutritional index than those patients who recovered from pulmonary tuberculosis (p = 0.025). CONCLUSION Inhospital mortality rate of tuberculosis did not change in the last 23 years. We suggest that pulmonary tuberculosis will continue to be a significant cause of death and therefore important health care problem for Turkey in the 21st century.