Profile of cancer patients admitted in a emergency room of a charity hospital in Southeast Brazil.

Abstract

e19307 Background: Given the increase in cancer cases worlwide, there has been a high demand for urgent and emergency care by oncologic patients. Despite the high demand there is still a lack of studies on the oncological population in the context of urgency and emergency especially in the developing countries like Brazil. Methods: Retrospective longitudinal study. Sample consisted of the medical records of cancer patients who were admitted to the service, selected according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, covering a period of one year. The variables evaluated were: age, gender, comorbidities, primary site, metastasis, intrahospital transfer, discharge type, days of hospitalization, hospitalizations within one year. Results: Identified 388 patients with a total of 1235 consults among them.; 237 (60.9%) were male, with mean age of 66.5 years old; 151 (39.1%) were female with a mean age of 59.77 years old. The most frequent primary site of cancer was intestine/colon/rectum (14.9%), followed up by hematological cancer (13.8%), and breast cancer (11.5%). Metastasis was identified in 93 patients, with liver as the most commom site of metastasis. The most commom complaints were pain(37.3%), dyspnoea (9.7%), weakness (7.6%), and nausea/vomiting (7.6%). Most patients were not transfered for other hospital units, 20.6% of the consults resulted in transfer to the Oncology Nursery, and 2.7% of the consults resulted in transfer to the Intensive Care Unit. Regarding to type of discharge, 85% of the admissions resulted in discharge, 10% resulted in death, 0.89% resulted on evasion, and the rest of the patients were still hospitalized at the end of this research. The minimum of consults in one year was 1, while one patient visited the ER 35 times. Conclusions: We found that the oncology population seek frequently for ER consults, with pain as the most common complaint.The most common cancer on our service was intestine, followed up by hematological cancer and breast cancer. The majority of the consults resulted in discharge. We suggest more research approaching different ways to assess, classify and to treat oncologic pain, considering that most patients have follow up with their attending physician and yet they seek ER to treat this symptom. Also,we suggest that the population must be clarified and educated about the real role of the ER service to avoid excessive consults.

Cancer patients admitted in the emergency department: A single‐centre observational study

“…In Brazil, 625,000 new cancer cases are estimated per year from 2020 to 2022 (National Cancer Institute José Alencar Gomes da Silva, 2020). A demographic and epidemiological transition process has been taking place in the country, and cancer has quickly become one of the leading causes of death (Aleixo et al, 2020; Mendes, 2011; Ministry of Health, 2014). As the prevalence of cancer increases along with cancer survival rates, the number of ED visits of cancer patients may increase (Lee et al, 2021).…”