Parkinson’s disease and the frequent reasons for emergency admission

Original Research

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Authors: Ozlem Guneysel, Oguzhan Onultan, Ozge Onur

Published Date September 2008 Volume 2008:4(4) Pages 711 - 714

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/NDT.S3007

Ozlem Guneysel¹, Oguzhan Onultan², Ozge Onur¹

¹Marmara University School of Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey; ²Kadıköy Universal Hospital, Department of Neurology, Istanbul, Turkey

Introduction: Available data suggest that Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients have a significant socioeconomic impact owing partly to increased hospital and drug utilization. The aims of this study were to provide a profile of patients with PD who required admission to hospital and to determine the reasons for emergency admission.

Patients and methods: Between September 1st, 2004 and August 31st, 2006, patients with PD who were admitted to our emergency department (ED) were included in the study. Patients with PD who were diagnosed by a neurologist formerly, and admitted to the ED with any reason constituted the study population. Demographical data, reasons for admission, years exposed to PD, number of admissions to the emergency department in the past 12 months, prior Hoehn and Yahr (H&Y) scores were recorded. H&Y was performed again for all patients 4 weeks after discharge.

Results: Seventy-six patients with PD were included in the study. Reasons for admission to hospital were infectious diseases (31.6%), trauma (27.6%), cardiovascular emergencies (14.5%), cerebrovascular emergencies (11.8%), gastrointestinal emergencies (7.9%), and electrolyte disturbances (6.6%), respectively. There was no dependence between the time of exposure to PD and H&Y score. Number of emergency admittance in the last 12 months was independent from the last H&Y score (p = 0.297). However, there was a dependency between the reasons for emergency admittance and the H&Y scores (p = 0.023).

Discussion: H&Y score is not dependent on the emergency admittance or on the outcome after discharge from the emergency department. The motor disability by itself cannot predict the whole picture of PD and the systemic complications leading to emergency admittance.

Keywords: Parkinson’s disease, emergency admittance, Hoehn and Yahr scale

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