Lung infection and heart failure are the main reasons for hospitalization in Vigo

Hospitalization is mainly caused by disease or after surgery. Last year there were several 18,500 patient hospitalizations on medical hospitalization floors (diseases), while more than 16,000 people needed a hospital bed to recover from operations in Vigo’s medical hospitals.

In the medical field, the most common pathologies were associated with lung.

In the ranking of the five most common diagnoses, first place went to infections and inflammation of the lungs above: There were 1,264 hospitalizations last year, which were likely to be caused by the coronavirus virus.

Second place, almost equal to pulmonary infections, belongs to heart failure (the heart muscle doesn’t pump blood as well as it should), a very common condition that increases with age and can affect 10% of people over 80 years of age.

Heart failure has always been one of the leading causes hospitalization and re-hospitalization in people over 65 years of age. Problems arise especially in the later stages due to concomitant diseases and complications that this entails.

The third place in the list of highest incomes is occupied by diseases classified as “miscellaneous, signs and symptoms respiratory system“, with another 1,164 hospitalizations, followed by “other pneumonia” in fourth place with 835 hospitalized patients.

Finally there is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) which is largely related to tobacco smoke and was responsible for another 834 hospitalizations. The prevalence of this latter disease in Spain is 11.8% among people aged 40 to 80 years and has up to 79 comorbidities. It is an often undiagnosed condition that can damage the heart, kidneys and bones or cause depression and anxiety.

The average length of stay for these patients was 8 and a half days. last year, and the mortality rate among these hospitalizations due to illnesses is 12%.

31% of hospitalized patients are over 74 years of age.

In addition to 18,500 admissions from the medical department and 16,300 from the surgical department, the hospitals of the Vigo medical district added to the official statistics of last year almost 4,000 hospitalizations in obstetric departments3,300 in pediatrics, 1,151 in psychiatry and 245 in intensive care. In total, more than 43.6 thousand people were hospitalized, of which 57.7% were women and 47.2% were men.

At the same time, almost a third (31%) were people over 74 years old. The breakdown of hospitalized patients by age group shows that there were 10,155 hospitalizations among people aged 45 to 64 years.

The third place is for people in age from 15 to 44 years, with 8,800 hospitalizations, although almost half were obstetric admissions to pregnant women. So the third highest incidence would actually be in people ages 65 to 74, with 7,158 hospitalizations.

As for children, last year there were 1046 hospitalized children under one year old and another 2,514 people aged 1 to 14 years. Income in pediatrics decreased by 10% compared to 2022, especially among children under one year old.