Introduction :Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbations (COPD-EA) are important events in the management of COPD because of their negative impact on the health status of patients.COPD-EA are complex events triggered by several factors.

Aims :The aim of this study is to investigate the factors that may play a role in the frequency of COPD-EA.

Methods :This is a retrospective study conducted over a period of 1year(January 2022-January 2023) involving patients who were treated for COPD at the pneumology department IBN Nafiss at the Abderrahmane Mami hospital

Results :88 patients were included (sex ratio13 ,6).Mean age was 65 years with extremes from 40 to 84 years.The distribution of patients according to the GOLD classification was: groupA1 ,1%,group B 10.2%,group C 52.4% and group D36.3% .All patients included in the study had an exacerbation requiring hospitalization.43 ,7% still smoke(p=0,004).The most frequent etiology of COPD-EA was bronchial infections(p=0,005) presumed to be of viral origin in 48.9% of cases and of bacterial origin in 51.1% of cases, followed by the insufficiency or cessation of background treatment found in 10.4% (p=0,038).As for pollution peaks, we do not have measurements of pollution levels in our region.For the other factors, the use of contraindicated drugs (anxiolytics, sedative neuroleptics, morphine, antitussives) was noted in 1.1% of the cases(p=0,008).

Conclusion :Viral and bacterial bronchial infections are the main triggers of COPD in our series, underlining the interest of vaccinations in the management of COPD patients followed by a non-existent or inadequate background treatment, hence the need to educate patients on the importance of a correct medication.