[Intrahospital mortality during acute exacerbations of COPD. Study EABPCO-CPHG of the College of the Lung specialists of General hospitals (CPHG)]

Introduction: The objective of the present study was to determine the in-hospital mortality rate in the EAPCO-CPHG cohort and to identify risk factors.

Methods: All patients with COPD acute exacerbation admitted to the pneumology department of 68 French general hospitals between October 2006 and June 2007 were included in the EABPCO-CPHG cohort.

Results: At discharge, vital status was known for 1817 patients. Forty-five patients died during their hospital stay, i.e., an in-hospital mortality rate of 2.5%. Mutivariate analysis identified age (OR=1.07 [1.03-1.11]), grade greater than 2 dyspnea in stable state (OR=3.77 [1.68-8.57]), and number of clinical signs of severity during the acute exacerbation (OR=1.36 [1.11-1.55]) as independent risk factors for in-hospital mortality.

Conclusions: In-hospital mortality in patients admitted to a pneumology department of a general hospital is quite low. Simple clinical criteria allow easy identification of at-risk patients and should enable management to be improved.