Abstract

NANCUPIL R., Waleng et al. Clinical and demographic description of Oncological Patients with ongoing infectious complications in Hospital Base Valdivia. January - July 2013. Rev Cient Cienc Méd [online]. 2015, vol.18, n.1, pp.17-21. ISSN 2077-3323.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in Chile and infections are one of the main-triggering of death. The main objective of this research is to describe clinical and demographic characteristics of oncological patients of Hospital Base Valdivia with ongoing infectious complications between January-July 2013. Material and methods: series of cases, we reviewed the medical records of all oncological patients who had infectious complications between January-July 2013, excluding those who rejected the invitation or had incomplete medical records. Also, tools for determining nutritional status and socioeconomic status were applied. Data went through computational analysis with determination of descriptive statistics. Result: 38 patients were included with total of 52 infections. Sixteen were men and 22 women, average age was 59 years. Most belonged to lower socioeconomic strata and only had basic education. The most common underlying neoplasms were breast and cervical cancer. Sixteen patients were in stage IV and about two-thirds were malnourished. 31 of the 52 infections were localized, while in 21 there was systemic response, 5 progressed to sepsis and 2 to septic shock, 2 patients died because of their infections. The most common sites of infection were: bronchia, genitourinary tract and oral cavity. Clinically it was determined that 44 were bacterial infections, 3 fungal, 2 viral and 2 combined. Discussion: it draws our attention the predominance of patients from low socioeconomic and educational levels. While infections may correspond to potentially fatal complications in cancer patients, the majority of our cases were mild.

Keywords : Infection; Neoplasms; Immunosuppression; Medical Oncology.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )