Vol.99 No.10 contentsPRACTICA OTO-RHINO-LARYNGOLOGICA
Vol. 99 No. 10 October 2006
Statistical Survey of Otolaryngological Emergency
Patients at Takarazuka Municipal Hospital
Keiko Kashiba, Toru Seo and Naoki Saka
(Takarazuka Municipal Hospital)
In the Hanshin area, there is one otolaryngological emergency clinic; however, it is not open at night except for during New Year's holidays. To examine problems associated with emergency medicine in otolaryngology, we surveyed otolaryngological emergency patients at Takarazuka Municipal Hospital. The subjects were 242 outpatients who visited the emergency clinic of otolaryngology at Takarazuka Municipal Hospital between April, 2004 and March, 2005. They included 122 males and 120 females, ranging from 0 to 94 years old. One hundred and one patients (41.7％) were less than 10 years old. The five most frequent diseases were acute otitis media (including 1 acute mastoiditis) (30.2％), the presence of a foreign body (15.7％), acute pharyngitis (including acute tonsillitis and acute epiglottitis) (12.4％), epistaxis (11.6％), and balance problems (11.2％). Nine patients in total (3.7％) were admitted. The average number of patients coming to the hospital during night duty was 2.6 on week days, 6.3 on Saturday, 4.2 on Sunday, and 4.7 on holidays. During day duty, it was 1.3 on Saturday, 2.4 on Sunday, and 2.3 on holidays. The time when most patients visited was 8 p.m. on holidays and 9 p.m. on week days. Thirty five patients (14.5％) visited 1 a.m. Most of the patients came from Takarazuka City (41.3％), and the majority were from the Hanshin area (95.0％). Administration of primary emergency medicine in otolarynogology depends on the otolaryngologists on duty in hospitals, and thus their work is difficult. It is therefore necessary to establish their work-load.
Key words : emergency clinic of otolaryngology, otitis media, duty