[Medical activity in a emergency outpatient department dermatology].
BACKGROUND
The aim of this study was to characterize the medical activity of a dermatology emergency room and to compare it with 1) outpatients, scheduled visits to the same department and 2) visits to community dermatologists in private practice.


METHODS
All the 500 patients who attended the emergency room in one month and all the 411 patients with scheduled appointments during one week within the same period were included prospectively. The clinical diagnoses were recorded and compared between the two groups using chi square and linear correlation tests. Data on the diagnoses made by community dermatologists in private practice were obtained from another study.


RESULTS
In the emergency room, 4 diagnoses accounted for 71.4 of all visits: infections (29 p. 100), dermatitis (23.8 p. 100), rashes (11 p. 100) and urticaria (7.6 p. 100). In scheduled visits the 4 leading diagnosis were cancer and precancerous lesions (28.7 p. 100), dermatitis (11.7 p. 100), fungal infections (8.3 p. 100) and acne (7.1 p. 100). There was no correlation (r=0.14; p=0.6) between the 16 more prevalent diagnoses in the emergency room and the prevalence of the same diagnoses in scheduled visits in the hospital department. The emergency diagnosis were also not correlated with those seen in private practice (r=0.21; p=0.4). Seven percent of emergency room consultants were hospitalized.


CONCLUSIONS
Skin disorders encountered in the dermatology emergency room differ from those seen both in the outpatient hospital department and in community private practice.
Murr
D
D
Service de Dermatologie, Hôpital Henri Mondor, 51, avenue du Maréchal de Lattre de Tassigny, 94010 Créteil.
Bocquet
H
H
Bachot
N
N
Bagot
M
M
Revuz
J
J
Roujeau
J-C
JC
D003153:Community Health Services; D003880:Dermatology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D010045:Outpatients; D011331:Private Practice; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D012871:Skin Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*