PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Roseane Caldeira
AU  - Márjorie Rodrigues
TI  - Prevalence of severe asthma in the hospital of Montes Claros- MG
DP  - 2012 Sep 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - P3951
VI  - 40
IP  - Suppl 56
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/40/Suppl_56/P3951.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/40/Suppl_56/P3951.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2012 Sep 01; 40
AB  - Introduction:Asthma attacks can be triggered by respiratory infections, environmental pollutants, sudden temperature changes, among other factors, being directly related to an increased likelihood of hospitalization. Every year occurs 370.000 hospitalizations for asthma in Brazil and this is the fourth leading cause of hospitalization in the public health system. Aims:To investigate the prevalence of severe asthma in hospitalized patients in the University Hospital in the city of Montes Claros-MG. Methods:Descriptive and retrospective study. We have analyzed 111 medical records of patients admitted in the University Hospital from January 2008 to June 2011, due to the exacerbation of asthma. Through the use of a form, informations have been collected from the medical records of 50 patients with severe asthma. Results: The prevalence of severe asthma was 45%. Of the 50 patients with severe asthma, the average was 15 years. 60% were female, 52% had other hospitalizations due to asthma. 82% of the cases had asthma diagnosed before the admission. Of these, 44% of subjects were doing regular treatment and 31% used inhaled corticosteroids associated with bronchodilator. Regarding the hospitalization, the average of admission time was 4.6 days. Related to the climate was observed that most of the patients were admitted in the fall (40%) or in the winter (26%). Conclusions: The study showed high prevalence of severe asthma and that there is a failure in primary care related to the treatment and the education of asthmatic patients because of the frequency of asthma exacerbations hospitalizations. Moreover, few patients do regular treatment, which causes low life quality, absenteeism from school and work and risk of death.