[Analyses [corrected] of the consults from the Department of General Surgery to the Department of Internal Medicine].
RATIONAL AND AIM: to better understand the nature of the consults solicited by the Department of General Surgery to the Department of Internal Medicine and to examine the results and the experience from the point of view of an Internal Medicine specialist.


METHODS
Prospective analysis of the 129 consults from patients admitted in General Surgery to the Department of Internal Medi-cine during 2005.


RESULTS
The number of consults was 4% of all patients admitted in General Surgery (6,5% of de admitted patients were from the emergency service and 2% from the planning programme). The median age was 74 years. The patients were visited a mean of 3.3 days. The most frequent reasons for consultation were dyspnea (29%), fever (21%), cough (11%) and dysrhythmias (8%). The most frequent diagnosis were cardiac failure (17%), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (15%), respiratory infection and/or accumulation of bronchial secretions (13%), pneumonia (9%) and atrial fibrillation (7%). In 31% of cases the diagnosis was decompensation of previously diagnosed chronic disease. Nineteen patients died (15%), higher than the global average admitted in General Surgery (2%). The average age of these patients was 82 years. The mortality was higher when the admission was from the emergency service (17 of 91) than when it was from the planning programme. The most frequent cause of death was suture failure and peritonitis with secondary septicemia in 5 patients.


CONCLUSIONS
The task of the Internal Medicine specialist was not only the treatment of chronic diseases, but also to assist in the diagnosis and treatment of acute diseases related or unrelated to the cause of the admission. To point up the invalid specificity of cough as a guide symptom in the diagnosis of previously operated patients. The causes of death were almost exclusively related to the disease that resulted in the admission to the Department of Surgery or with its complications (17 of 19).
Soler-Bel
J
J
Servicios de Medicina Interna y Medicina de Familia y Comunitaria, Xarxa Assitencial de Manresa, Barcelona. 17508jsb@comb.es
Sala
C
C
Relaño
N
N
Moya
M J
MJ
Vergéz
L
L
Flor
A
A
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006748:Hospital Departments; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013503:Surgery Department, Hospital