Risk factors for hospital admission in revisiting patients to the emergency department with abdominal pain

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to identify the clinical characteristics and risk factors associated with the admission of patients in the emergency department (ED) within 30 days after discharge. METHODS: A retrospective, observational study was conducted on adult patients presenting with abdominal pain to the ED of a single, urban, university hospital, between January 2014 and December 2015, who revisited the ED within 30 days after discharge. Data was collected on the emergency severity index level, time to contact doctors, physical examination, laboratory tests, use of computed tomography (CT), and patient disposition on revisitation. The primary outcome was hospital admission following an ED revisit in the 30-day period after the first visit. RESULTS: During the study period, 19,480 patients visited the ED with the chief complaint of abdominal pain, and 13,577 were discharged. A total of 251 patients (1.29%) revisited the ED within 30 days, of which 89 were eligible for the study. The primary outcome was associated with not performing a CT scan on the initial visit and an increased C-reactive protein (CRP) value. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that a cut-off baseline CRP value of >0.35 mg/dL can predict the primary outcome with a sensitivity and specificity of 75% and 62.1%, respectively (area under the curve, 0.701; 95% confidence interval, 0.569–0.833; P=0.007). CONCLUSION: An increased CRP value and not performing abdominal CT were associated with a higher rate of admission following ED revisits of patients with abdominal pain. Future prospective studies on the role of abdominal CT imaging in patients presenting to the ED with abdominal pain will be needed.