Korean J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr.
2001 Apr;4(1):54-62.
A Prospective Study on Emergency Room Utilization in Children with Nonsurgical Gastrointestinal Disorders
- Affiliations
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- 1Department of Pediatrics, Seoul Red Cross Hospital, Seoul, Korea.
Abstract
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PURPOSE: There have been few reports about common gastrointestinal diseases in children visiting
emergency room. The aim of this study was to present basic data and their meanings about
emergency room utilization in children with nonsurgical gastrointestinal disorders.
METHODS
The authors prospectively studied 1,228 consecutive children with gastrointestinal
diseases, amongst 6,179 nonsurgical pediatric patients who visited the emergency room of Seoul
Red Cross Hospital from Jan. 1st 1998 to Dec. 31st 1999.
RESULTS
1) First visit was 60.7% of total visits and 30.7% were between 1 and 3 years of age
while 80.4% were below 6 years of age. Male patients were predominant by a ratio of 1.3:1.
2) The peak month of visits was December (12.1%), and the peak time of visits was between 8:00
pm and midnight (35.9%). Average length of stay at emergency room of the total patients were
0.86 hour. 3) Five major diseases were acute gastroenteritis (44.3%), fecal impaction &/or
constipation (21.3%), acute gastritis (16.4%), intussusception (4.6%), and infantile colic (4.3%) in
order. 4) 19.6% of the total patients were hospitalized.
CONCLUSION
There were differences in various distributions regarding each nonsurgical gastrointestinal
disease entity in children visiting emergency room even though distributions of the total
patients in our study were not so different from those in previous reports by others.