CHANGING PARADIGM IN ETIOLOGY OF NON TRAUMATIC COMA OVER THE LAST FIFTEEN YEARS

Introduction- Developing countries like India are facing double burden of diseases i.e. India is still tackling communicable disease whereas non communicable disease are on rise. The present study was conducted to assess the change in etiology of non traumatic coma over 15 years. Methodology-The present study was conducted in two phases at a tertiary care centre, Bhopal. The first phase of study was conducted from July 2001 to November 2002 on a total of 100 patients whereas the second phase of study was done from June 2018 to October 2019 on 215 patients. A detailed history pertaining to demographic variables and detailed clinical examination along with relevant investigations were conducted and findings were noted in questionnaire. The data thus obtained during both the phases of study was compared and difference in etiology was noted. Results The study included 100 patients during first phase and 215 patients during the second phase. The present study observed no significant difference in age and gender composition of patients during both the phases (p>0.05) however a statistically significant difference in the etiology of NTC was noted i.e. etiology during the phase 1 was infective (33%) whereas during phase 2 etiology were predominantly due to life style related causes such as CVA (54.4%). Conclusion Our study provide a detailed description of change in etiology of non-traumatic coma over the 15 years. We observed that the NTC was predominantly associated with infective causes 15 years back but in present era, non-infective causes such as CVA is the leading cause of NTC. However, infective causes of NTC still persist. So it is strongly recommended that primordial and primary prevention should be the mainstay of intervention to reduce the burden of NCD on health care facility