Acute XXXX in general practice: tentative diagnoses and handling. A descriptive study.

@entity1 @entity698 @entity66 @entity1066 @entity1902 @entity158 @entity490
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the spectrum of diagnoses made by general practitioners (GPs) seeing @entity1 with acute @entity490 , as well as GPs' handling of these @entity1 . To investigate factors predictive of acute admission to hospital. DESIGN: Descriptive study. SETTING: General practices in southern Norway, autumn 2007 and spring 2008. Subjects. A total of 134 @entity1 who were offered an acute appointment with a GP because of @entity490 . MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Tentative diagnosis made and handling of the @entity1 by the GP. Explanatory factors: @entity158 duration, findings on clinical examination. RESULTS: The most frequent diagnosis was non-specific @entity158 (20%), followed by @entity1902 (13%), @entity698 (12%), @entity1066 (11%), @entity66 (9%), and urinary tract problems (7%). One-quarter of @entity1 were sent home after clinical examination without any specific action taken. One-quarter were acutely admitted to hospital, and one-quarter were treated with medication. The rest was either referred for further investigations on a non-acute basis (14%) or given a follow-up appointment with the GP (10%). @entity698 was the strongest predictor for acute admission. Rebound tenderness on clinical examination as well as @entity158 duration for 24 hours or less also independently predicted acute hospital admission. CONCLUSION: GPs face the challenge of meeting a wide and inhomogeneous spectre of complaints when dealing with @entity1 with acute @entity490 . Three-quarters of @entity1 are taken care of in primary care.
