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Background: Hyperglycemic emergencies (HGEs) are the major deadliest acute complications of diabetes. HGEs have reached an alarming stage and increased year-to-year leading to increased morbidity, hospitalization, and mortality. Despite HGEs causing this increased healthcare, psychological, social, and economic burden, studies conducted to address this burden and its predictive factors remain limited. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the incidence and predictors of HGEs among adult diabetic patients., Methods: An institution-based retrospective follow-up study was employed on 538 systematically selected adult diabetic patients who had diabetic follow-up in Sidama region and Gedeo zone public hospitals from September 1, 2018, to September 1, 2022. The sample size was determined using STATA V-14. Data were collected using an extraction checklist, entered into EPI data version 4.4.2.2, and analyzed using STATA version 14. The Kaplan-Meier curve and log-rank test were used to determine the survival probabilities and to compare the survival status. The Cox proportional hazard regression model was used to determine the association and identify the predictor variables. A statistical significance was declared at a p -value of <0.05 in line with a 95% confidence interval (CI) and hazard ratios., Results: The study was conducted on 538 diabetic adult patients with a response rate of 100%. The mean age of study participants was 44.5 years, and more than 66.7% were males. The incidence rate of HGEs was found to be 29 (95% CI: 25.3-33.2) per 1000 person-months with a total of 7176.5 person-month observations. Being farmer (adjusted hazard ratio (AHR) = 6.47; 95% CI: 2.61-16.04), poor glycemic control (AHR = 6.84; 95% CI: 3.47-13.49), less frequent diabetic follow-up (AHR = 4.00; 95% CI: 1.02-15.57), and having hypertension (HTN) (AHR = 2.94; 95% CI: 1.62-5.34) were significantly associated with increased hazard of acquiring HGEs among adult diabetic patients. Conversely, the hazard of experiencing HGE was 63% lower among patients who had diabetic nephropathy relative to those without diabetic nephropathy (AHR = 0.35; 95% CI: 0.15-0.83). Hence, setting and strengthening specific diabetic management strategies focused on the identified predictors could be paramount to reducing HGEs and their unwanted effects. Moreover, it's better to consider more frequent diabetic follow-up visits for all patients regardless of other complications., (© The Author(s), 2024.)

Background: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic imposed a major public health impact. Septic shock is one of the frequent complications encountered among critically ill COVID-19 patients, leading to poor healthcare outcomes. This study aimed at assessing the magnitude of septic shock and its associated factors., Methods and Materials: An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted retrospectively on 242 randomly selected COVID-19 patients admitted to three Addis Ababa COVID-19 care centers from September 2020 to October 2021. Septic shock was defined as a Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score ≥2 points and persisting hypotension requiring vasopressors to maintain a mean arterial pressure of ≥65 mmHg despite adequate volume resuscitation. Variables in the bivariate analysis were fitted to multiple regression analysis to eliminate confounders and determine independent risk factors for septic shock. In the multivariable analysis, statistical significance was declared at P  < .05., Results: The prevalence of septic shock was found to be 39.3% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 33.1, 45.7). Advanced age (≥60 years) [AOR = 7.9; 95% CI: 2.3, 26.8], intensive care unit stay above 7 days [AOR = 6.2; 95%CI: 2.1, 18.7], invasive ventilation [AOR = 10; 95% CI: 3, 37], and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) [AOR = 18; 95% CI: 7, 45] were significantly associated with increased septic shock among COVID-19 patients. Meanwhile, diabetes [AOR = 0.24; 95% CI: 0.08, 0.71] and cardiovascular diseases [AOR = 0.17; 95% CI: 0.07, 0.44] were associated with a decrease risk of septic shock., Conclusion: The prevalence of septic shock in critically ill COVID-19 patients was high and a major concern in this study, and it is independently associated with advanced age, prolonged stay in the intensive care unit, and COPD. Based on these findings, healthcare professionals should closely monitor and manage patients with COVID-19 who have a history of COPD, are older, or prolonged intensive care unit (ICU) stays to prevent septic shock and improve patient outcomes., Competing Interests: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article., (© The Author(s) 2024.)

Background: Acute kidney injury is a prevalent complication in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and a significant global public health concern. It affects approximately 13 million individuals and contributes to nearly two million deaths worldwide. Acute kidney injury among Intensive Care Unit patients is closely associated with higher rates of morbidity and mortality. This study aims to assess the incidence of acute kidney injury and identify predictors among adult patients admitted to the medical Intensive Care Unit., Method: A retrospective follow-up study was conducted by reviewing charts of 317 systematically selected patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit from September 1, 2018, to August 30, 2022, in Wachemo University Nigist Ellen Mohammed Memorial Comprehensive Specialized Hospital. The extraction tool was used for the data collection, Epi-data version 4.6.0 for data entry, and STATA version 14 for data cleaning and analysis. The Kaplan-Meier, log-rank test, and life table were used to describe the data. The Cox proportional hazard regression model was used for analysis., Results: Among the total study participants, 128 (40.4%) developed Acute Kidney Injury (AKI). The incidence rate of Acute Kidney Injury was 30.1 (95% CI: 25.33, 35.8) per 1000 person-days of observation, with a median survival time of 23 days. It was found that patients with invasive mechanical ventilation (AHR = 2.64; 95% CI: 1.46-4.78), negative fluid balance (AHR = 2.00; 95% CI: 1.30-3.03), hypertension (AHR = 1.6; 95% CI: 1.05-2.38), and a vasopressor (AHR = 1.72; 95% CI: 1.10-2.63) were independent predictors of acute kidney injury., Conclusion: The incidence of Acute Kidney Injury was a major concern in the ICU of the study area. In the intensive care unit (ICU), it was found that patients with vasopressors, invasive mechanical ventilation, negative fluid balance, and chronic hypertension were independent predictors of developing AKI. It would be better if clinicians in the ICU provided targeted interventions through close monitoring and evaluation of those patients with invasive ventilation, chronic hypertension, negative fluid balance, and vasopressors., Competing Interests: The authors declared no conflict of interest., (Copyright: © 2024 Ashine et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Background: Despite the increase in ventriculoperitoneal shunt surgeries performed for children with hydrocephalus, the potential complications and survival of patients after the procedure remains the major challenge for both clinical and public health aspects. This study intends to assess the survival status and scrutinize the predictive factors of mortality among children after a ventriculoperitoneal shunt. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was employed by reviewing charts of 337 systematically selected children who have undergone a ventriculoperitoneal shunt from 2016 to 2018 in Addis Ababa. The extraction tool was used for data collection, Epi-data version 4.4.2 for data entry, and Stata version-14 for cleaning and analysis. Kaplan-Meier curve, log-rank test, and life table were used to describe the data. Cox proportional hazard regression model was used for analysis. Any variable at p  < 0.25 in the bi-variable analysis was fitted to multivariate analysis, and significance was declared at p  ≤ 0.05. Then, AHR with 95% CI was used to report the association and test the statistical significance. Finally, texts and tables were used to present the results. Results and Conclusion: The incidence rate of mortality was 58.4 per 1000 child-months of observation with a median survival time of 12 months (95%CI: 9.04-14.96). Communicative hydrocephalus (AHR: 1.99, 95% CI: 1.18-3.36), post-traumatic brain injury (AHR: 7.43, 95% CI: 3.21-16.88), emergency surgery (AHR: 1.86, 95% CI: 1.17-3.13) as well as revised shunt procedure (AHR: 8.01, 95% CI: 6.12-13.43) were independent predictors of death. Besides, sunset eye (ARH: 2.01; 95% CI: 1.17-3.47), rapidly increased head size (ARH: 2.05, 95% CI: 1.14-3.37), prolonged antibiotics treatment (AHR: 2.46, 95% CI: 1.82-7.37), and gram-negative infections (AHR: 1.95, 95% CI: 1.60-12.64) were also significantly associated. Hence, health professionals ought to give special attention to patients with identified predictors.

Introduction: New onset of diabetes mellitus was noted as the commonest comorbidity in the COVID-19 pandemic, which contributed to a worse prognosis. Existing evidence showed that new-onset diabetes is associated with increased mortality compared to nondiabetic and known diabetic patients in the COVID-19 era. SARS-CoV-2 virus can worsen existing diabetes; at the same time, it can trigger new-onset diabetes that eventually worsens patient outcomes. Thus, this study is aimed at determining the prevalence and factors associated with new onset of diabetes mellitus among COVID-19 patients., Methods: Institution-based retrospective cross-sectional study design was conducted by reviewing 244 patient's records in the Addis Ababa COVID-19 care center. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression were used. During bivariate analysis, variables with p ≤ 0.25 were transferred into multivariate analysis. Adjusted odds ratios to determine the strength and presence of the association with a 95% confidence interval and p value ≤ 0.05 were considered, respectively., Results: The mean age of the study participants was 53.2 years with (SD = 13.35). The study findings showed that 31.1% (CI: 25.4-37.4) of COVID-19 patients had new onset of diabetes mellitus; of those, 11.8% had type 1 and 88.2% had type 2 diabetes. Being male (aOR = 2.9; 95% CI: 1.2, 7.1), family history of hypertension (aOR = 3.7; 95% CI: 1.3, 10.5), obesity (aOR = 3.1; 95% CI: 1.01, 8.9), having pulmonary embolism (aOR = 0.2; 95% CI: 0.06, 0.04), and hyperkalemia (aOR = 9.3; 95% CI: 1.8, 47.3) showed statistically significant association with new onset of diabetes mellitus., Conclusion: A significant proportion of COVID-19 patients had been diagnosed with new onset of diabetes mellitus, and new-onset type 2 diabetes mellitus is the most common diabetes mellitus type. Being male, obesity, having a pulmonary embolism, family history of hypertension, and hyperkalemia were independently associated with new onset of diabetes mellitus among COVID-19 patients. Therefore, focused interventions need to be strengthened towards the identified factors., Competing Interests: The authors declared no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Asaminew Habtamu Sane et al.)