Coma The Common Causes In An African Medical Ward

Abstract

Coma is a common reason for a patient to be admitted to hospital. It has many causes and the physician attending a comatose patient must determine its etiology at an early stage so that the appropriate therapy can be instituted. The causes of coma are well known but, in a country like Rhodesia, where the pattern of disease differs from that of Europe, it seems that it would be a worthwhile procedure to find out the more usual causes of coma in African patients admitted to hospital. Most of the patients in this ward are adult but a few children (over the age of seven) are seen. The cases were studied consecutively in a prospective manner. Thus in this study, from 1963 to 1965 inclusive, only factors related to the cause of the coma were considered and not the outcome of the disease.