Incidence and Outcome among COPD Patients Attending the Emergency Department of the King Abdul-Aziz Medical City Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Background: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a common chronic lung disease.

Objectives: The aim of this study is to determine the incidence and outcome among the patients attending the emergency department of the King Abdul-Aziz Medical City (KAMC) Hospital, Riyadh and receiving a discharge diagnosis of COPD.

Methods: We reviewed all the charts of subjects attending the Emergency Department of the KAMC (King Abdul-Aziz Medical City) hospital in the period, from 1 June to 31 September 2016. We analyzed the chart of all subjects receiving a diagnosis of COPD. They formed the subjects of this retrospective study.

Results: Two hundred and ten subjects accessed the emergency department into the study period. We selected 140 subjects with mean (±SD) age of 71.9 (± 9.84) years; males 54, 38.6 [p2] %) with a discharge diagnosis of COPD. The incidence of COPD was 1.9%. The outcome of COPD management indicated that the majority of the subjects discharged with home ventilation were 85 (60.7%), 30(21.4%) subjects were shifted to different wards, whereas 22 (15.7%) were discharged in stable condition, while 3 (2.2%) died.

Conclusion: The study revealed a high pervasiveness of COPD (66.66%) among the Saudi patients. The outcome of COPD ranged from living with home ventilation to mortality.