Emergency Management North of the Shenzhen River

Abstract

A study was carried out in a district hospital located close to the Hong Kong-Shenzhen border, in order to get a picture of the epidemiology of diseases and injuries sustained by Hong Kong residents in China. The emergency medical treatment provided and the degree of patient satisfaction were also analysed. The majority of the patients were adult males. Trauma constituted more than 50% of the attendance, with traffic accident and common assault being the leading causes. This group of Hong Kong residents preferred to be treated in Hong Kong hospitals because of perceived better quality of care. There was a high demand on the local ambulance service and this might have financial and resource implications.

In‐hospital Delay Increases the Risk of Perforation in Adults with Appendicitis

“…Patients who suffered from perforation were significantly older, more frequently had co-morbidities, and were more likely to have delayed surgery. These findings are consistent with observations of other studies showing that older patients present with more advanced forms of appendicitis [7,9,[13][14][15][16][17][18]22]. The logistic regression showed that age was the most important factor influencing the perforation rate, followed by co-morbidity and delay.…”

“…The influence of age on perforation rate has been addressed in a number of studies. One of the major reasons might be delay to diagnosis, as elderly patients wait longer to seek medical care [7,17,22,26]. Another possible reason might be emergency department wait times.…”

“…The influence of in-hospital delay has been analyzed in a number of studies [7,8,10,11,19,22,23,25]. In contrast to delay to diagnosis, which has been accepted as an important factor associated with more severe appendicitis, analyses of in-hospital delay are contradictory [7,10,11,19,22].…”

“…The influence of in-hospital delay has been analyzed in a number of studies [7,8,10,11,19,22,23,25]. In contrast to delay to diagnosis, which has been accepted as an important factor associated with more severe appendicitis, analyses of in-hospital delay are contradictory [7,10,11,19,22]. Indeed, some studies report shorter in-hospital delays in patients with perforated appendicitis, most likely because the more severe clinical findings expedited patient treatment [8,23].…”

“…Delay to diagnosis is difficult to assess, especially in elderly patients who often have difficulties in reporting the onset of their symptoms. In-hospital delay is more easily quantified and has been analyzed in a number of articles, but with contradictory results [1,7,8,10,11,19,22,23].…”