Introduction:

The demand for health care by the geriatric population has increased in hospital emergency services.

Objectives:

To characterize the geriatric patients attended in the special care unit of the emergency center.

Methods:

An observational and cross-sectional study was carried out, with all the geriatric patients admitted to the special care room of the emergency center, of the "Dr. Luis Díaz Soto" hospital, from June 2016 to February 2017.

Results:

Of 900 patients investigated, 67.8% were geriatric. Male sex predominated and ages 60 to 69 years (50.4%). 88 patients died (9.77%) and of these, 72 were geriatric (8%). The highest mortality (7.5%) occurred in the ages of 70 to 79 years. The highest percent came from the medical observation room. The most identified diagnoses at admission were: bronchopneumonia (27.4%), stroke (21.3%) and acute coronary syndrome (20.4%). The most frequent clinical causes of death were bronchopneumonia (27.7%), shock (25.0%) and stroke (16.6%).

Conclusions:

The characterization showed the predominance of the male sex, age between 60 and 69 years and the clinical conditions in the diagnosis at admission (bronchopneumonia, stroke and acute coronary syndrome). Mortality was higher in patients aged 70 to 79 years. The causes of death were related to the diagnosis at admission, which justifies its study and control in emergency rooms.

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