Stefania Zerbo, Marco La Mantia, Ginevra Malta, Giuseppe Davide Albano, Arianna Rifiorito, Virginia Manco, Vincenzo Falco, Antonina Argo
This study on the mortality trends in hospitalized patients at the University tertiary care Hospital “P. Giaccone” in Palermo (Italy) affected by the SARS-CoV-2 analyses clinical information from necroscopy medical record and death certificates in order to: 1) discern patients who died due to COVID-19 (understood as the immediate cause of death, reported in death certificates, the course of the disease documented within a causal chain (immediate and underlying cause) and patients who died of other diseases with SARS-CoV-2 infection as a comorbidity; 2)evaluate the pre-existing conditions of SARS-CoV-2 positive patients and their influence on the mortality rate with reference to the Charlson Comorbidity Index; 3)compare variables concerning patients who died at the University Hospital of Palermo, with data from the National Institute of Health during the analyzed period, in order to strengthen or refute the hypotheses of other studies or to bring in new findings. The results of this retrospective study confirm, in public health terms, the importance of proper certification of cause of death, complete with indications of comorbidities and complications, as it is of fundamental value from both an epidemiological and medico-legal point of view.
