RESULTS
In total, 424 patients were admitted to the hospital in the studied wards. Of these, 202 (47.6%) patients met the inclusion criteria and had, therefore, their medical records analyzed. A total of 222 patients were excluded from the final sample for the following reasons: patient discharged in less than 48 hours (n=208, 49.0%), medical records not found (n=8, 1.9%) or patients aged under 18 years old (n=6; 1.4%).
Of the 202 records analyzed, 121 (59.9%) were from female patients and had a mean age of 51.48 (SD 16.42, range: 19 to 97) years. Table 1 shows the complete patients’ characteristics. The most prevalent reason for hospitalization was cholelithiasis surgery or obstruction of the biliary tract (with or without cholecystitis) (n=20, 9.9%), followed by breast cancer (n=9, 4.4%), benign thyroid neoplasm (n=8, 3.9%) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (n=8, 3.9%).
[INSERT TABLE 1]