© 2003 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd & British Thoracic Society
EDITORIAL
Inpatient management of acute COPD
Inpatient management of acute COPD: a cause for concern?
Department of Respiratory Medicine, Ealing Hospital, Middlesex UB1 3HW, UK
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr M Rudolf, Department of Respiratory Medicine, Ealing Hospital, Middlesex UB1 3HW, UK;
michael.rudolf@eht.nhs.uk
Inpatient mortality rates for patients with COPD vary with the type of hospital
Keywords: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; inpatient management; mortality; resources
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
British guidelines for the management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) were first published in 1997.1 Over the subsequent 6 years there has been an enormous increase in our understanding of the underlying causes and mechanisms of acute exacerbations of COPD,2–4 as well as the realisation that, in addition to being a major cause of morbidity and mortality, acute exacerbations place an enormous burden on healthcare resources.
COPD is the third largest cause of respiratory death in the UK after pneumonia and cancer, causing over 30 000 deaths per year. Age adjusted emergency admission rates for COPD in the UK rose by more than 50% between 1991 and 2000, and about one quarter of all hospital inpatient bed days used for treating acute respiratory disease are for COPD,5 amounting to nearly one million hospital bed days per year.6
With such a significant proportion of inpatient
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This article has been cited by other articles:
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Wildman, M J, Roberts, C M, Pearson, M G
(2004). Variations in mortality in acute COPD may reflect nihilism as well as resources * Authors' reply. Thorax
59: 538-538
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- Inpatient management of acute COPD: A cause for concern?
- Roger J Wolstenholme
- Thorax Online, 18 Nov 2003 [Full text]
- Author's reply
- Michael Rudolf
- Thorax Online, 11 Dec 2003 [Full text]
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