The disease spectrum of adult patients at a tertiary care center emergency department in Lebanon

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 14; no. 5; p. e0216740
• Main Authors: Hitti, Eveline, Geha, Mirabelle, Hadid, Dima, Bachir, Rana
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 22.05.2019; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adult; Adults; Age; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Arteriosclerosis; Atherosclerosis; Biology and Life Sciences; Cardiovascular disease; Cardiovascular Diseases - epidemiology; Care and treatment; Clinical medicine; Communicable diseases; Communicable Diseases - epidemiology; Developing countries; Diagnosis; Emergency medical care; Emergency medical services; Emergency Medical Services - statistics & numerical data; Emergency medicine; Emergency preparedness; Emergency Service, Hospital - statistics & numerical data; Emergency services; Family physicians; Female; Gastrointestinal diseases; Health care; Healthcare industry software; Hospital admission and discharge; Hospital emergency services; Hospital patients; Hospitals; Humans; Infections; Infections - epidemiology; Intestine; LDCs; Lebanon - epidemiology; Male; Management; Medical care utilization; Medical records; Medical research; Medicine; Medicine and Health Sciences; Mental health; Middle Aged; Pain; Patients; Pediatrics; People and Places; Physicians; Population; Public health; Resource allocation; Retrospective Studies; Studies; Summer; Surgeons; Tertiary Care Centers - statistics & numerical data; Trauma; Wounds and Injuries - epidemiology; Young Adult; Lebanon; United States > US; Beirut Lebanon
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0216740

There is an increase in Emergency Department (ED) utilization globally. Understanding what patients present to EDs with is important for resource allocation, training and staffing purposes. There is paucity of data pertaining to ED visit presentations in Lebanon. This study aims at describing the spectrum of diseases among adult patients who present to a tertiary care center in Lebanon, an upper-middle income country (UMIC). A retrospective chart review of adult patients (age ≥ 19) presenting to a tertiary care hospital ED during 2010-2011 was completed. Common diagnoses in three categories (all adult visits, treat and release, admitted visits) were assessed. Diagnoses were classified according to the Clinical Classifications Software. Descriptive statistics were presented in tables as frequencies and percentages. During the study period, 32787 adults presented to the ED with 18.7% resulting in hospital admission. The most common diagnoses in ED patients were injuries and conditions due to external causes, abdominal pain, non-specific chest pain and intestinal infections. In the treat and release group, intestinal infections emerged in the common list for ages 19-44. Coronary atherosclerosis was common in admitted patients aged ≥45 years. Summer was the busiest season, with abdominal pain and intestinal infection being prominent diagnoses during that season. This study is the first to assess adult ED visits in a Lebanese setting. Our study suggests that patients in our population suffer from the double burden of both communicable and non-communicable disease, with coronary atherosclerosis common in admitted patients (≥ 45 years) and intestinal infections common in treat and release adult patients (19-44years), the latter condition peaking in summer and driving seasonal surges in ED visits.