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Overloaded emergency departments are common around the world. This prospective, descriptive, and analytical study evaluates the reasons for emergency room use and describes the severity of the patients' conditions and how they reach the emergency department. It took place at the emergency department of the principal hospital of Dakar (the Armed Forces Teaching Hospital) over a one-week period (from August 23 to August 30, 2016) and included a sample of 219 patients of both sexes aged 15 years and older. Data were collected about social and demographic characteristics, reasons for choosing the emergency department rather than other care, time of day, day of the week, accessibility, means of transport, diagnosis, and severity. More than half of patients (55 %) were men, with a mean age of 42 +/- 18. Only 10 % of patients lived within 5 km of the hospital. Most (84.5 %) came from the Dakar region and lived between 5 and 35 km from the hospital. Most patients reached the hospital by their own means (83 %). Only 2 % were transported by the public emergency ambulance service. The reasons for choosing the emergency unit were the opportunity for additional tests in 41.1 % of cases ; the desire to be hospitalized in 26.9 % ; fear of death in 26.5 %, no waiting list in 14.2 %, and lack of money in 11 % of cases. Patients in truly serious condition accounted for only 5 % of cases. Most (88 %) returned home after stabilization, 12 % were hospitalized, and 0.5 % died. Good practices, good organization, and improved complementarity between public, private, and emergency services are needed to reduce the use of the latter.

We report the results of a retrospective study in the medical intensive care unit of the Principal Military Teaching Hospital of Dakar. The objectives were to determine the epidemiological and clinical aspects of severe malaria and to evaluate the prognostic values of the failure of different organs. Eighty-seven patients were admitted for severe malaria. Their average age was 35 ± 18.53 with a sex-ratio of 1.71 for men. Mortality was 33.3% and concerned mainly young adults. Neurological failure was the most frequent (79.3%). Hemodynamic failure was the most relevant prognostic factor for mortality, followed by hypoglycemia, respiratory and renal failure. The Simplified Acute Physiology Score II (SAPS II) was reliable in predicting mortality. The mean SAPS II was 44.85, with an expected mortality of 32.6%.