Article

AIM: The aims of this study were to estimate the proportion of emergency
department presentations attributable to children with cerebral palsy (CP),
investigate the frequency of emergency department presentations in a CP cohort,
and compare emergency department presentations among children with CP with those
of other children. METHOD: This was a retrospective cohort study. The Victorian
Cerebral Palsy Register was linked to the Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset.
Data on emergency department presentations for the CP cohort occurring between
2007 and 2014 and population control data were obtained. RESULTS: The CP cohort
(n=1748) had 7015 emergency department presentations during the 7-year period,
accounting for 0.4% of the 1.69 million age-specific presentations during that
time. The number of annual presentations per 1000 children rose with increasing
CP severity. Compared with presentations among the general population, higher
proportions of presentations among the CP cohort were preceded by ambulance
arrivals (27% vs 8%), triaged as urgent (66% vs 32%), and required hospital
admission (38% vs 12%). INTERPRETATION: The marked differences in presentations
between the CP cohort and the general population in the proportions that were
urgent and required ambulance arrivals and hospital admissions was an important
finding. Strategies to ensure appropriate use of services, including
encouragement to seek earlier assistance from primary care providers, may prevent
problems escalating to the need for urgent care. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: Children
with cerebral palsy (CP) account for 0.4% of childhood emergency department
presentations. More emergency department presentations among children with CP
require ambulance arrival. More CP emergency department presentations are urgent
and require hospital admission. Traditional emergency department triage scales
seem less accurate for this group.
CI - (c) 2017 Mac Keith Press.

Langue : ANGLAIS