Prognosis of tetanus patients in the intensive care unit of Provincial Hospital Jason Sendwe, Lubumbashi, DR Congo

Tetanus is still a public health problem in developing countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo. The objective of this study was to determine the prognosis of patients with tetanus admitted in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Provincial Hospital Jason Sendwe, Lubumbashi, DR Congo. This is a descriptive study which collected information from registers and medical records of patients admitted for tetanus in the ICU of Jason Sendwe Hospital, between January 2005 and December 2009. We calculated the parameters of position, dispersion as well as frequencies. We used the test of independent association of prognosis (death versus survival). Tetanus constituted 2.1% of admissions in the ICU during the 5-year period. The average age of patients was 39.38 ± 17; majority of patients were males (95.5%). The majority of patients lived the townships of Kampemba (27.3%), Kenya (22.7%), and Annexe (18.2%). All patients presented the generalized form of the infection. The door of entry was detectable in 71.5% of cases, localized mainly to the lower limbs (61.9%). The average length of stay was 11.29 ± 11.39 days. Mortality was observed in 52.4% of cases. This mortality was statistically significant in patients aged mrore than 40 years (p=0.029) but not not related to the length of stay (p=0.080) nor the location of point of entry(p=0.28). In our environment the prognosis of tetanus remains severe. This disease is still frequent in the city of Lubumbashi; sensibilisation of population on preventive strategies as well as setting up appropriate structures for better management of cases is required.