Introduction:

Mechanical ventilation is a procedure used for the replacement of ventilation, which saves the life of patients with acute respiratory failure; but at the same time, it is one of the first causes of complications and mortality.

Objective:

To identify the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of patients who died while receiving mechanical ventilation, admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the “Joaquín Albarrán Dominguez” Clinical Surgical Hospital during the triennium 2013-2015.

Material and methods:

A descriptive, cross-sectional study was carried out with the clinical histories of these patients. The information was collected in a data matrix that was subsequently analyzed with the SPSS 21.0 software, on the basis of absolute and relative frequencies and the use of the chi2 test for the bi-varied correlations; the statistical significance value was p <0.05.

Results:

Of the 166 patients selected for the study, the 49.4% were over 70 years of age. COPD was the most frequent reason for ventilation. The main complications of ventilation were: multiple organ failure (25.3%), weaning failure (21.6 %), and respiratory distress (20.4%).

Conclusions:

Multiple organ failure, bilateral bacterial bronchopneumonia, and pneumonia associated with mechanical ventilation were the most frequent complications and causes of death in ventilated patients.

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