Prognostic Factors of Comas in the Intensive Care Unit of the University Teaching Hospital of Parakou (Benin)

Background: Coma is a highly frequent situation associated with several diseases. Objective: That is to assess the prognostic factors of comas at the intensive care unit of the university teaching hospital of Parakou. Patients and Methods: It is a cross-sectional study with descriptive and analytical purpose based on prospective gathering of data. It has been performed from March 1 to July 31, 2014. The population study consists of 100 adult patients admitted to the intensive care unit for coma. The vital and functional prognosis data are studied. Results: The admission frequency of comatose patients to the intensive care unit is 44.4%. Patients’ mean age is 27 ± 13.9 years with extremes of 16 and 88 years. The average length of stay in the intensive care unit is 5.2 ± 5.6 days with extremes of 2 hours 30 minutes and 30 days. Mortality rate is 30%. Poor prognostic factors are: average Glasgow score of 6.8 ± 2.9 (p = 0.01), average outpatient simplified severity index (OSSI) of 9.1 ± 3.5 (p = 0.02), pupillary abnormality (p = 0.00), motor weakness (p = 0.00), average glycemia of 1.5 ± 0.82 g/L (p = 0.02), average systolic blood pressure of 130.9 ± 44.5 mm Hg (p = 0.03), average diastolic blood pressure of 80.8 ± 22.3 mm Hg (p = 0.03), average respiratory rate of 30.9 ± 10.6 cycles/min (p = 0.03) and average temperature of 37.8°C ± 1.2°C (p = 0.03). Conclusion: Coma is a pathological entity with high frequency in clinical medicine. Its positive diagnosis is easy, but etiological research is hard. Hospital mortality is high and influenced by several factors. Taking into account, those factors in care strategies can improve their prognosis.