Clinical Profile of Unknown Geriatric Patients in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Background: A large number of unknown patients without any personal, family, or other identification details represent a unique problem in the health services of developing countries like India in a context of legal, humanitarian, and treatment issues. These patients pose a diagnostic and management challenge to treating physicians and staff. There are sparse data on these patients. This study provides a systematic evaluation of the current state of knowledge in this area. Aim: To estimate the proportion of unknown geriatric patients admitted in our hospital and to study the clinical profile and outcome of these unknown geriatric patients. Materials and Methods: This is retrospective observational study conducted in a Tertiary Care Hospital, Andhra Pradesh, India from October 2015 to October 2016. All patients attending our hospital who don’t have attenders to look after and patients who don’t have nominal identity and age > 60 year are taken into study. Results: In this study we have examined 47 (n=47) unknown geriatric patients in one year. Most of them are in age group 60 -70 yr (80.85%). Most common working diagnosis found is altered sensorium (Delirium) due to metabolic causes and infections (16/47). Most of the unknown geriatric patients are admitted in AMC (26/47). The major outcome observed in our hospital is death. 38 out of 47 are expired. 16 out of 38 expired in first 24 hr and most common cause of death observed is metabolic disorder (47.3%). Conclusion: We have done retrospective chart review of all Unknown patients from October 2015 to October 2016, who are brought to our hospital. Clinical and sociodemographic characteristics and clinical outcome of the sample are analyzed. Our findings demonstrate metabolic causes, and infections are the primary reasons for admission of unknown patients to our hospital. This pattern can be useful to guide the approach of healthcare providers in India.