ADMISSION OF HYPERTENSIVE PATIENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BENIN TEACHING HOSPITAL, NIGERIA

ABSTRACTBackground: There is a suggestion of an identifiable impact of hypertension on all cause mortalityin rural Africa. There is however paucity of hard data on the impact of morbidity or modality fromthis disease.Objective: To determine the contribution of hypertension (HT) to adult morbidity and mortalityat the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) in Benin City, Nigeria.Design: Retrospective study.Setting: University of Benin Teaching Hospital.Subjects: Adult hypertensive admissions (HTA) in Benin City, Edo state, Nigeria during the periodJanuary 2000 to December 2002.Results: There were a total of 2,852 adult medical admissions during the study period out of which575 were because of hypertension related morbidity. Only 302 (52.5%) of these were previouslydiagnosed as hypertensives). The most common hypertensive complication was cerebrovascularaccident followed by congestive cardiac failure and chronic renal failure in order of decreasingfrequency. The annual adult mortality rate from medical admissions was 5.6%. Mortality due tohypertensive complications constituted 10.5% of overall hospital adult mortality and 16.1% ofdeaths from medical causes. The annual mortality rate among HTA was 22.1% (252/1000) with amale:female ratio of 2:1.Conclusion: The contribution of systemic hypertension to adult morbidity and mortality is verysignificant. There is need for more concerted effort to create hypertension awareness, and to achievegood control and prevention of hypertensive complications