Neuropathic pain among hospital in-patients. Analysis of Austrian hospital discharge data

• Published in: Schmerz (Berlin, Germany) Vol. 23; no. 1; pp. 59 - 64
• Main Authors: Dorner, T, Gustorff, B, Likar, R, Lawrence, K, Schwarz, F, Rieder, A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: German
• Published: Germany 01.02.2009
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Austria; Back Pain - epidemiology; Carpal Tunnel Syndrome - epidemiology; Child; Child, Preschool; Cross-Sectional Studies; Female; Hospitalization - statistics & numerical data; Humans; International Classification of Diseases; Intervertebral Disc Displacement - epidemiology; Male; Middle Aged; Neuralgia - epidemiology; Neuralgia - etiology; Patient Discharge - statistics & numerical data; Young Adult; Austria
• ISSN: 1432-2129
• DOI: 10.1007/s00482-008-0728-7

Neuropathic pain is a common symptom of many diseases among in-patients in hospitals and neuropathic pain itself often requires hospitalisation. It was the aim of this study to examine epidemiological key data related to neuropathic pain among hospital in-patients. The source of the data used was the ICD-10 coded main diagnoses with neuropathic pain of a complete data set of discharges obtained for every Austrian hospital for the year 2002. A total of 49,412 cases (614/100,000 inhabitants) with diagnoses always associated with neuropathic pain were recorded, representing 2.0% of all discharges from Austrian hospitals. Furthermore, there were as many as 353,893 cases with diagnoses which are possibly associated with neuropathic pain, like cancer, diabetes mellitus and stroke, representing 14.3% of all cases discharged from hospitals. Applying the proportion of those suffering from neuropathic pain among patients with these three diagnoses which is known from the literature would result in 5.8% of all hospital in-patients suffering from neuropathic pain. These data represent a first step in the assessment of the epidemiology of neuropathic pain and show the high extent of neuropathic pain in the Austrian in-patient setting.