Skip to main content

Some NLM-NCBI services and products are experiencing heavy traffic, which may affect performance and availability. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience. For assistance, please contact our Help Desk at info@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

British Medical Journal logoLink to British Medical Journal
. 1976 Sep 25;2(6038):721–723. doi: 10.1136/bmj.2.6038.721

Asthma deaths in Cardiff 1963-74: 53 deaths in hospital.

J B MacDonald, E T MacDonald, A Seaton, D A Williams
PMCID: PMC1688842  PMID: 184875

Abstract

In a study of factors associated with death from bronchial asthma in hospital 53 patients were investigated. Typically the fatal attack persisted for several days before admission to hospital and normally occurred in patients with a long history of asthma. The patient or doctor often underestimated the severity of the attack. On admission most patients were severely ill, and over a third died within 24 hours. Peak flow rate and blood gases were rarely measured. Corticosteroid treatment was often underused, and patients rarely received assisted ventilation before death. Infection played a part in 14 deaths, five of them associated with assisted ventilation. Admitting asthmatics to a special respiratory ward with facilities for standardised assessment and treatment and introducing a self-admission service may help to prevent some of these deaths.

Full text

PDF
721

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Cochrane G. M., Clark J. H. A survey of asthma mortality in patients between ages 35 and 64 in the Greater London hospitals in 1971. Thorax. 1975 Jun;30(3):300–305. doi: 10.1136/thx.30.3.300. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Crompton G. K., Grant I. W. Edinburgh emergency asthma admission service. Br Med J. 1975 Dec 20;4(5998):680–682. doi: 10.1136/bmj.4.5998.680. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Jones E. S. The intensive therapy of asthma. Proc R Soc Med. 1971 Nov;64(11):1151–1152. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Macdonald J. B., Seaton A., Williams D. A. Asthma deaths in Cardiff 1963-74: 90 deaths outside hospital. Br Med J. 1976 Jun 19;1(6024):1493–1495. doi: 10.1136/bmj.1.6024.1493. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from British Medical Journal are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES