ABSTRACT
Introduction: The intensive care unit (ICU) is a health care delivery service for patients who are in critical condition with potentially recoverable diseases. This study was aimed to determine the admission patterns, clinical outcomes among patients admitted in the intensive care unit (ICU). Methods: A retrospective review of all patients admitted into the ICU at Babcock University Teaching Hospital (BUTH) from 2016 to 2021. Data was collected from individual patient case notes and the ICU admission and discharge registers. Results: A total of 137 patients were included in this study, consisting of 78 (57.4%) males and 58 (42.6%) females. Ages ranged from 4 to 90 years with a mean age of 47.60 ± 19.52 years. The most common cases admitted were general surgery patients of which there were 58 (42.6%). Neurological cases were however the major causes of death (6.6%), followed by sepsis (4.4%) and respiratory diseases (4.4%).The overall mortality rate of the ICU was 27.2%. Deceased patients spent longer days in ICU (5.73 days) as compared to patients who were discharged. Conclusions: The overall mortality was considerably high and general surgery and neurological cases were the most common causes of admission in ICU and mortality respectively.

ABSTRACT
Nurses are key health professionals involved in the frontline care of elderly patients. WHO predicted that the proportion of people aged over 60 years will increase from 11% to 22% between 2000 and 2050. Aligned with this increase in the ageing population is a greater demand for nursing care. Nurses’ perceptions of caring for elderly is of global interest because of many reported negative perceptions and limited number of qualified nurses interested in the field of caring for elderly patients. This study aimed at exploring the nurses’ perceptions of caring for elderly patients at University Teaching Hospital and Levy Mwanawasa University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka. The study used a mixed methods approach. Data were obtained from 148 randomly and 18 purposively sampled nursing staff. Binary Logistic Regression and content analysis of main themes were used to identify factors associated with perceptions of caring for elderly patients. Majority of the nurses (81%) had negative perceptions towards care of elderly patients. There was no statistical significance between social demographic data, knowledge of caring, availability of resources, staffing levels and management support and perceptions of caring for elderly patients. This could have been due to a small sample size which was used. The negative perceptions about caring for elderly patients in this study could be associated with the lack of knowledge specific on care of elderly patients, training units and geriatric specific guidelines for care of elderly patients. Therefore, the nursing curriculum content should be reviewed to include care of elderly patients, guidelines including hospital infrastructure, staffing and equipment friendly to care of elderly patients should be developed.

ABSTRACT
Introduction: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) creates a global pandemic and affects more than 200 countries/regions. As of July 30, 2020, the cumulative number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the world exceeded 16 million. SARS-CoV-2-infected patients are more likely to be admitted to the hospital and enter the intensive care unit, with high mortality. The most common symptoms of COVID-19 patients are fever and cough. Objective: To assess the magnesium sulfate extended infusion as an adjunctive treatment for covid-19 infected for anaesthesia. Materials and Methods: The prospective study was undertaken Department of Anesthesiology, Medical College for women and Hospital, Uttara, Dhaka, Bangladesh from July to December 2021. Of the 157 anesthesiologists who responded to this survey, 57 (36.0%) reported using magnesium sulfate in anesthesia. All patients received standard therapy for asthma, while the treatment group received an intravenous magnesium sulfate bolus of 50-75 mg/kg (0.2-0.3 mmol/kg) followed by 40 mg/kg/h (0.16 mmol/kg/h) for 4 h. Patients were monitored for cardiorespiratory complications. The treatment group underwent four blood draws to assess pharmacokinetic parameters. Results: Of the 157 anesthesiologists who responded to this survey, 57 (36.0%) reported using magnesium sulfate in anesthesia. The highest participants 50 years above 48(30.5%), 31-40 years 28(17.8%) and 0-10 years 04(2.5%). The frequency of use of adjuvant drugs in anesthesia is described. The number and percentage of clinical effects (n/%) for the use of magnesium sulfate in anesthesia were (in descending order, more than one response per participant allowed): postoperative analgesia (41/71.9%), reduction of anesthetic consumption (59/68.4%), prevention and treatment of preeclampsia and seizures in eclampsia (36/63.1%), prevention and treatment of arrhythmias (29/50.8%), reduction of the dose .......

ABSTRACT
Aim of the study: To describe the perioperative care of anemia in emergency abdominal surgery in the National Hospital of Niamey. Patients and methods: This was a prospective and descriptive study that lasted 6months, from June 6th to December 9th, 2020. Were inclueded in the study, all the patients admitted in the department of surgical emergencies who presented acute surgical abdomen associated with anemia. The main studied variables were: age, gender, history, CBC results, American Society of Anesthesiologists score (ASA), indications, etiological diagnosis, incidents and intraoperative accidents, post operative complications, treatment of the anemia, evolution and duration of hospitalization. Statistical analysis of the data was done using SPSS version 25, graphics and data entry were done with Word and Excel 2016 softaware. The average values were calculated for each variable for each patient and examinated by the chi² test for qualitative variables. P value < 0,05 was considered as significant. Results: Our study involved 147 patients out of 581 admissions, i.e a frequency of 25.30%. the average age of the patients was 16.27 years with extremes of 2 and 70 years, the male gender predominated with 64.63% (n=95) and a sex ratio of 1.83. The main preoperative diagnosis was acute peritonitis in 78.91% f cases (n=120) and peritonitis by ileal perforation was the first etiology with 63.94% (n=94). The majority of our patients had moderate preoperative anemia in 73.47% (n=108) and severe anemia in 21.09% (n=31) of cases. The management of anemia was based on blood transfusion which was performed in 10.20% of cases (n=15) preoperatively and 32.65% of cases (n=48) intraoperatively. In the postoperative period, the treatment of anemia was essentially based on oral iron supplementation. Intra operative incidents and accidents were significantly associated with the severity of anemia preoperatively. Parietal suppuration was the main postoperative complication, ie 70.6% ..