COPD exacerbations: epidemiology and impact on patient's outcome

COPD is a major public health problem, especially in the developing countries. It is a chronic inflammatory airway condition associated with episodes of acute deterioration of symptoms called exacerbations. This study was conducted to identify the seasonal pattern in the frequency and outcome of hospital admissions due to COPD exacerbations in all age-groups. It is a retrospective, observational hospital-based study, which was conducted in three tertiary care hospitals in Karachi, Pakistan (JPMC, AKUH and LNH) for a period of two years (2010–2011). Data was collected from Hospital Records Department through patients discharge files of those who had a primary diagnosis of COPD. Seasonal trend, outcome of hospital admission and patient profile was taken into account when hospitalized. The results demonstrated that there was a sharp rise in admissions in autumn season which peaked in winter. Age and sex-specific rates showed that out of total 1,227 patients, most admitted were males (82.64%)(p=0.001), in age group 65 and above (62.34%)(p=0.001). There were total 161 expired cases (13.12% of all hospitalized patients). Cardiac (17.4%), hypertension (16.77%) and arthritis (18.0%) were found to be most common associated diseases. From this study we have concluded that in Karachi acute exacerbation of COPD is more common in the winter season especially in the male adults and age group of above 65 years so, active measures and patients education programs should be made more effective to decrease the present burden of acute exacerbated COPD.