Features of patients that died for COVID-19 in a hospital in the south of Mexico: A observational cohort study

Ruíz-Quiñonez, Jesús Arturo; Guzmán-Priego, Crystell Guadalupe; Nolasco-Rosales, Germán Alberto; Tovilla-Zarate, Carlos Alfonso; Flores-Barrientos, Oscar Israel; Narváez-Osorio, Víctor; Baeza-Flores, Guadalupe del Carmen; Gonzalez-Castro, Thelma Beatriz; López-Brito, Carlos Ramón; Denis-García, Carlos Alberto; Pérez-García, Agustín; Juárez-Rojop, Isela Esther

BACKGROUND: Due to the wide spread of SARS-CoV2 around the world, the risk of death in individuals with metabolic comorbidities has dangerously increased. Mexico has a high number of infected individuals and deaths by COVID-19 as well as an important burden of metabolic diseases; nevertheless, reports about features of Mexican individuals with COVID-19 are scarce. The aim of this study was to evaluate demographic features, clinical characteristics and the pharmacological treatment of individuals who died by COVID-19 in the south of Mexico. METHODS: We performed an observational study including the information of 185 deceased individuals with confirmed diagnoses of COVID-19. Data were retrieved from medical records. Categorical data were expressed as proportions (%) and numerical data were expressed as mean ± standard deviation. Comorbidities and overlapping symptoms were plotted as Venn diagrams. Drug clusters were plotted as dendrograms. RESULTS: The mean age was 59.53 years. There was a male predominance (60.1%). The mean hospital stay was 4.75 ± 4.43 days. The most frequent symptoms were dyspnea (88.77%), fever (71.42%) and dry cough (64.28%). Present comorbidities included diabetes (60.63%), hypertension (59.57%) and obesity (43.61%). The main drugs used for treating COVID-19 were azithromycin (60.6%), hydroxychloroquine (53.0%) and oseltamivir (27.3%). CONCLUSIONS: Mexican individuals who died of COVID-19 had shorter hospital stays, higher frequency of shortness of breath, and higher prevalence of diabetes than individuals from other countries. Also, there was a high frequency of off-label use of drugs for their treatment.