TY - JOUR AU - Nyale, George Mwamnemo AU - Anderson, Ronald AU - Patel, Atulkumar Ramanlal AU - Feldman, Charles PY - 2016 TI - A 10 years audit of cardiothoracic referrals from a pulmonology service in a developing country: impact of patient human immunodeficiency virus status JF - Annals of Translational Medicine; Vol 4, No 7 (April 16, 2016): Annals of Translational Medicine (Primary Total Knee Arthroplasty) Y2 - 2016 KW - N2 - Background: There are few studies that have documented the clinical presentation, complication rate and outcome of cardiothoracic referrals from a Pulmonology Service, particularly in developing countries. Furthermore, the impact of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status on such referrals and their outcomes is not well documented. Methods: This was a retrospective audit of combined pulmonologist/cardiothoracic consultations, undertaken among the tertiary academic hospitals attached to the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, over a 10 years period (2001–2010) in order to document the clinical features of these referrals and to determine any impact of HIV status on trends in disease presentations, complications and outcome. Results: A total of 847 patients were evaluated on whom a variety of surgical procedures was performed, 50.4% being therapeutic, 32.8% diagnostic and 16.9% both therapeutic and diagnostic. HIV status was known in 488 cases. Of these 229 (46.9%) were HIV-seropositive and 259 (53.1%) -seronegative. The main reasons for referral were for infective conditions, including tuberculosis (TB), pleural disease/effusion/empyema, and other bacterial infections, with significantly more of the TB patients being HIV-seropositive (P UR - https://atm.amegroups.org/article/view/9799