[Pneumonia in the elderly. Factors related with the mortality during the episode and after the discharge].

Background And Objective: Pneumonia in the elderly (PIE) is a growing disease that causes great morbidity and mortality with frequent admissions to hospital and increasing health costs. The objective of our study was yo analyze the characteristics of PIE in an internal medicine hospital ward, the influence of quality of life (Katz index and scale of Karnofsky) on its evolution and after the discharge and the factors of poor prognosis during the episode of PIE and throughout the ambulatory follow-up.

Patients And Method: All the patients suffering from PIE admitted to the internal medicine ward of our hospital during a two years period were included in the study (125).