Objective:

To describe the casuistry of stroke patients treated in the Intensive Care Unit of the Trauma Center “Hospital Corazón de Jesús”.

Methodology (casuistry):

Retrospective cross-sectional descriptive study. All permanent resident patients at very high altitude, admitted in the period January 2019-January 2022, were included. For the analysis of the data, descriptive statistics and creation of a database in the Excel v16 program were used.

Results:

74 patients were admitted, 39 women (53%), mean age 64.82 (± 10.53 years), 51 cases (69%) due to ischemic stroke and 23 cases (31%) due to hemorrhagic stroke, with a mortality of 18%. The Glasgow coma scale, hemoglobin level, arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide, hyperoxemia, and lactate clearance on admission are prognostic factors for mortality. Thus, it is also evident that systemic arterial hypertension as well as erythrocytosis are comorbidities associated with the presentation of stroke at very high altitude.

Discussion:

Mortality in this study was similar to the literature consulted, confirming that altitude alone does not cause mortality or offer any type of protection, at least in neurocritical patients with stroke at very high altitude. In the same way, the age of presentation of the stroke is concordant with the international literature.

Conclusion:

It is imperative to describe the casuistry concerning our Health Centers to know the characteristics of the altitude pathology.

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