Late Nephrology Case Management and Morbidity Due to Chronic Renal Failure, Case of Guinea

Abstract

Context and Object: Late nephrology case management for patients with chronic renal failure is consistently associated with high morbidity rate. The objectives of this study were to determine the factors associated with late nephrology case management and to describe the evolution of patients depending on the time of care nephrology. Material and Methods: It was a 5-year prospective study, observational type, going from January 1st, 2010 to December 31th, 2014. We studied all the patients hospitalized with chronic renal failure with dialysis or not and we excluded the patients hospitalized for acute renal failure. Results: The study population includes 307 men (53.4%) and 268 women (46.6%) with a sex ratio of 1.14. Age population ranged between 15 and 85 years old with a mean of 44.4 ± 16.20 years old. Their profession was distributed as follows: 220 housewives (38.3%), 181 workers (31.5%), 104 civil servants (18.1%), 56 students (9.7%) and 14 unemployed (2.4%). Patients came from all regions of the country: Conakry: 389 patients (67.6%); Lower Guinea: 82 (14.3%); Middle-Guinea: 57 (9.9%); Upper Guinea: 31 (5.4%); Guinea Forest Region: 16 (2.8%). In this study population, 48 patients were admitted in emergency (8.3%); 105 were scheduled (18.3%) and 422 were referred to the nephrology department (73.4%). Reasons for the emergency admission were acute pulmonary edema in 21 patients (43.7%), decompensated anemia in 13 patients (27.1%), loss of consciousness in 9 patients (18.7%) and malignant hypertension in 5 patients (10.4%). The reference patterns was uremic syndrome in 312 patients (54.3%), followed by high blood pressure in 247 patients (42.9%), an edematous syndrome in 234 patients (40.7%), oligoanuria in 222 patients (38.6%), morphological abnormalities on the renal ultrasound in 4 patients (0.7%). The functional symptoms were vomiting in 379 patients (65.9%), followed by dyspnea in 290 patients (50.4%), headaches in 287 patients (49.9%). Among them, 121 patients could handle alone, 431 were borne by their families and 23 were indigent; 181 patients had consulted before 1 month of the beginning of the signs, 238 between 1 and 2 months and 156 after 2 months; 48 were admitted in emergency, 105 were programmed by the Nephrology Department and 422 were referred to the other health structures of the country. Conclusion: Several factors contributed to the delay in treatment, among which: the low socioeconomic level, the delay of the reference of the patients, the long distance of the regions, the lack of Nephrology units in the country.