XXXX in the emergency room: diagnoses and misdiagnoses.

@entity1 @entity64 @entity345 @entity1296 @entity528
BACKGROUND: @entity1296 is among the most frequent neurological chief complaints in emergency room (ER) @entity1 . Although the majority of underlying disorders are benign, serious causes that require immediate in-hospital treatment may occur that are difficult to identify clinically. METHODS: Retrospective study of 475 consecutive ER neurological consultations with @entity1296 as the chief complaint. RESULTS: Of all ER @entity1296 @entity1 , 73% were initially assigned to benign and 27% to serious diagnoses. The two most frequent disorders were @entity345 (22%) and @entity64 (20%). On follow-up (available in 124 @entity1 ), 43% of all ER diagnoses were corrected: 6% of benign ER diagnoses were corrected to serious diagnoses, 23% of serious ER diagnoses were revised to benign. The most frequent corrections concerned @entity1 with an ER diagnosis of @entity64 or @entity528 . CONCLUSIONS: In the @entity1 sample studied here, serious causes of @entity1296 were more prevalent than can be expected from population-based surveys or data from specialized outpatient departments. However, inappropriate assignment of @entity1296 @entity1 to benign diagnoses still occurred in a relevant proportion of @entity1 . ER clinical pathways, planning of imaging resources and follow-up of @entity1 in- and outside the hospital must take these points into consideration.
