RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: The number of patients visiting emergency departments has substantially increased in recent years. The time of visiting an emergency room does not say anything about the true urgency of the treatment. The aim was to analyse the patient population of the emergency outpatient department of a university ENT hospital. METHODS: All patients presenting as an emergency in an ENT university hospital in 2014 were evaluated with regard to demographic data, time of presentation, type of admission, diagnosis and therapy. RESULTS: 4234 patients were treated as emergencies. 56 % presented without referral on their own initiative, 24 % were referred by the general practitioner or ENT specialist, 8 % came by ambulance. 66 % presented outside regular working hours. The highest number of emergencies occurred on Saturdays, followed by Fridays and Sundays. The ten most frequent diagnoses were epistaxis, peripheral-vestibular vertigo, cerumen, tinnitus, otitis externa and media, tonsillitis, nasal bone fracture, acute hearing loss and sinusitis. 715 patients (17 %) were admitted to hospital. In 123 patients surgery was performed under general and in 204 patients under local anesthesia. The most frequent diagnosis of patients presented on their own initiative was cerumen obturans. 8 % presented on their own initiative did not show any pathological findings. CONCLUSION: As there is no ENT emergency service available in the region outside normal office hours, this gap is closed by the emergency outpatient department of the ENT University Hospital. A triage of the patients is necessary in order to distinguish the real emergencies from the easy cases.
