• E S Isamade, S J Yiltok, A F Uba, E I Isamade, and P H Daru.
• Department of Anaesthesia, Jos University Teaching Hospital, Jos. eisamade@yahoo.co.uk
• Niger J Clin Pract. 2007 Jun 1; 10 (2): 156-61.

ObjectiveTo determine the pattern of admissions to the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), a tertiary level referral hospital.MethodThis is a retrospective study of the record of patients admitted between January 1994 and December 2002 to the ICU of the Jos University Teaching Hospital. The information obtained from the admission/discharge record as well as the patients' case notes included demographic data, working diagnosis, type of treatment, length of stay (LOS) in the ICU and outcome.ResultA total of 738 patients were admitted over this period and comprised 403 males (54.6%) and 335 females (45.6%) giving a male: female ratio of 1.2:1. The age ranged from one day to 98 years with a mean of 28.3 +/- 19.8 years. Postoperative surgical patients accounted for 48.2% of all admissions, while 15.2% were medical cases. Other indications for admissions included polytrauma (9.5%), Obstetrics and Gynaecological complications (16.1%) and burns (11%). The length of stay (LOS) in the unit ranged from 1 to 56 days, with a mean of 4.5 +/- 5.1 days. A total of 241 patients died while on admission giving an overall mortality of 42.8%. Postoperative surgical admissions accounted for 38.6% of deaths followed by burn and polytraumatised patients with 23.2% and 11.6% respectively. The lowest mortality of 8.7% was in the obstetrics and gynaecology patients.ConclusionThe pattern of admission into the unit and the outcome of treatment has not significantly changed after 1-2 decade of an initial report. There is need to increase the number and quality of equipment to cope with the increasing need for ICU care, as well as draw up a policy on the type of cases to be managed in order to improve the out come of care.

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