DIGESTIVE DISEASES IN ELDERLY AND FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH LENGTH OF STAY IN THE HEPATOLOGY AND GASTROENTEROLOGY UNIT OF THE CAMPUS TEACHING HOSPITAL OF LOME (TOGO).

BACKGROUND: The digestive pathologies are frequent in the elderly and often have a latent and atypical symptomatology.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the epidemiological and evolutionary current data on digestive diseases in the elderly, and look for factors associated with length of hospital stay.

METHODS: Retrospective study of 10 years, including patients aged 60 and over hospitalized for digestive diseases in the Gastroenterology Department of the Campus Teaching Hospital of Lome, Togo.

RESULTS: Of 5933 hospitalized patients, there were 1054 patients (17.8%) aged 60 years and over with a digestive pathology (526 men and 528 women). The average age was 69.5 years ±7.9 ranging from 60 to 105 years. The average length of hospital stay was 7.45 days ±6.2 ranging from 1 to 44 days. HIV prevalence was 2.4%. In order of decreasing frequency, there were hepatobiliary pathologies (54.3%) with a predominance of cirrhosis and liver cancer, eso-gastroduodenal pathologies (23.1%) with predominance of ulcers, gastric cancer and esophageal cancer, intestinal pathologies (8.7%) with a predominance of food poisoning, pancreatic pathologies (4.2%) with a predominance of pancreatic cancer and peritoneal pathologies (1.4%). Gastric cancer was the second digestive cancer found after liver cancer. Pancreatic head cancer was the second disease after gastric cancer which need a transfer in a surgical ward (P=0.031). There were 204 deaths (19.4%). The longest duration of hospitalization was due to gastric cancer (9.16 days).

CONCLUSION: Hepatobiliary diseases were the most frequent and associated with a high death rate and a long hospital stay.