Äldre som söker akut sjukvård bör få särskilt omhändertagande. Kontaktmönster och underliggande diagnoser i retrospektiv tvärsnittsstudie
Sammanfattning
We investigated and documented the most common presenting complaints of elderly patients >80 years of age in Västerbotten at the emergency department
of Umeå University hospital. We found that the ten most common presenting complaints represented more than half of all emergency department visits. The
three most common presenting complaints were abdominal pain, chest pain and dyspnoea. On average, around 80 % of all patients were admitted to a ward and
for the three most common presenting complaints the number was even higher. The main conclusions from this study were that a surprisingly high proportion of
elderly patients are admitted to a ward after the emergency department visit at Umeå University hospital and that patients seeking with one of the three most
common presenting complaints often had complex discharge diagnoses involving typically chronic geriatric diseases which were hidden behind general
presenting complaints.