[Neurological emergencies in a university hospital].
BACKGROUND
We analyze the demand and to describe the neurological assistance in a university hospital.


METHODS
We have performed a retrospective and descriptive study of patients attended in the emergency services by neurologists from June 2000 to May 2001. The inventory and analysis has been carried out across a database in which we codify the reports of the patients diagnosed by means of CIE-9. We have been selected one month where we have collected all calls that neurologist have received, not only those of which reports was realized and codified.


RESULTS
The total number of neurological patients attended in a year was 1,864 representing 2.85% of all emergencies. The most frequent diagnostic were: cerebrovascular stroke (24.57%), epilepsy (13.06%) and headache (6.07%). Few seasonal variation was noted. There was no difference for sex. In the month's study there were 426 patients, which represented 7.78% of all medical urgencies. The most frequent calls came from internal medicine (65.02%).


CONCLUSIONS
Neurological emergencies constitute a large percentage of third level hospital's emergencies which justify a neurologist in the medical emergencies team.
García-Ramos
R
R
Servicio de Neurología, Hospital Universitario Doce de Octubre, Madrid. garciaramosg@yahoo.es
Moreno
T
T
Camacho
A
A
González
V
V
Bermejo
F
F
D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006785:Hospitals, University / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis*; D009462:Neurology; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D012189:Retrospective Studies