Underlying Cause of Death Recorded during 2013 to 2015 at a Tertiary General Hospital in Vientiane Capital, Lao PDR

In Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), the cause of death is not registered in death reports. As a result, the government cannot produce official reports that show mortality according to cause of death. This study aimed to report the underlying cause of death in a tertiary general hospital (Mittaphab Hospital) in Vientiane capital. Mittaphab hospital is a governmental teaching hospital with 300 beds for inpatient services specialized in orthopedics, neurology, and hemodialysis. Since a children hospital exists beside Mittaphab Hospital, severe pediatric cases are referred to the child hospital. HIV-positive cases and sputum positive tuberculosis are also transferred to the other specialized hospitals. All of the subjects in this study were patients who died in 2013–2015 at Mittaphab Hospital. Paper-based medical charts were examined by a medical doctor and staff from the medical records division. This chart review revealed that 1,509 patients (1,006 males and 503 females) died in this hospital during the study period. Of those, the number of patients aged <20 years and >80 years was small (6.2% and 7.7%, respectively). The most common underlying causes were injury (29.7%), cerebrovascular diseases (26.8%), renal disease (13.3%), infectious diseases (12.4%), and malignant neoplasm including brain tumor (4.8%). Among those aged 20–59 years, these percentages were 37.9%, 23.7%, 12.3%, 10.2%, and 5.0%, respectively. Although the patients visiting the hospital did not represent the whole population, the distribution of cause of death in the hospital was the only available information reported in Lao PDR.