Introduction:

Heart failure presents a high in-hospital and after discharge mortality, being a frequent cause of hospital readmission due to cardiac decompensation.

Objectives:

To determine the causes of death in adult patients with heart failure admitted to the National Hospital, Itauguá, Paraguay, in the period 2017 - 2021.

Methodology:

Retrospective descriptive observational cross-sectional study, which included 103 adult men and women with heart failure.

Results:

The mean age was 60±14 years (27-92 years), most of the patients were men (54.37%), of urban origin (57.28%), with primary studies (65.05%), secondary (31.07%) and with comorbidities (99.03%). The main comorbidity was arterial hypertension (28.16%). The main intercurrent pathologies were pathologies of infectious cause (56.25%). The mean ejection fraction was 43±11% (17-68%). The most frequent cardiac pathology was hypertensive heart disease (53.40%) followed by ischemic heart disease (35.92%). The mean BNP was 1823 pg/dL. Most of the patients had a decreased ejection fraction (70.87%) followed by a preserved one (29.13%). Mortality was 41.7% and the main cause of death was extracardiac (62.79%) with infectious pathologies as the most common (44.44%). When analyzing the factors related to mortality, it was found that age ≥ 60 years and presenting intercurrent pathology was related to mortality (p<0.05).

Conclusions:

Mortality was 42% and the main cause of death was non-cardiac (62.7%), with intercurrent pathologies caused by infection being the most frequent. The predictors of mortality were age equal to or greater than 60 years and the presence of intercurrent pathologies (p <0.05).

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