• Pankaj Pant, Aishana Joshi, Bibek Man Shrestha, Babin Basnet, Niraj Bam, and Santa Kumar Das.
• Department of Pulmonology and Critical Care Institute of Medicine, Maharajgunj, Kathmandu, Nepal.
• JNMA J Nepal Med Assoc. 2020 Dec 31; 58 (232): 106110541061-1054.

IntroductionRespiratory diseases are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide imposing a significant global health burden. The admission rate of patients is the indication of the overall workload in the ward. The aim of this study was to find the prevalence of admission of patients in the pulmonology ward among patients visiting the pulmonology department of a tertiary care hospital.MethodsA descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital. Medical records of all patients visiting the pulmonology department and admitted to the pulmonology ward from May 2018 to April 2020 were retrospectively reviewed. Data entry and analysis was done in SPSS version 20.0. Descriptive statistics were performed.ResultsA total of 30,480 patients visited the pulmonology department in the two-year study period. Out of them, 1296 (4.25%) patients were admitted to the pulmonology ward. Eleven respiratory diseases were identified as primary causes for admission. Acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (44.5%), pneumonia (26.3%), tuberculosis (11%), lung cancer (5%), and bronchiectasis (3.9%) ranked the top five causes for admission.ConclusionsRespiratory diseases impose a tremendous burden in the health care setting. Acute exacerbation of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pneumonia, and tuberculosis remains an important cause of respiratory admissions in our study.

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