Why did Patients Admit to Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Outpatient Clinic Despite the Risk of COVID-19?

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the characteristics of patients who applied to physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) outpatient clinics of two pandemic hospitals despite the risk of COVID-19 infection. Methods: Patients who were admitted to PM&R outpatient clinics of two pandemic hospitals in April and May 2020 were retrospectively scanned from hospital records. Age, number of admissions, the reason of admission, diagnosis and the prescribed medications were recorded. The descriptive statistical methods were employed. For the comparison of means student-t test was used. Results: A total of 1078 patients (female 606, male 472) admitted to two tertiary referral hospitals’ PM&R outpatient clinics. The ages of patients ranged from 0 to 88 years with a mean age of 45.4±14.9 years. The most common reasons for admission were acute peripheral joint pain (290), follow-up and prescription (244) and acute low back pain (140), respectively. The most commonly affected joint was the shoulder and followed by the knee. Most frequent causes for follow-up and prescription were fibromyalgia and neuropathic pain, and pregabalin and duloxetine were mostly prescribed medications for these patients. Conclusion: Acute pain may be considered as the most important condition for admission of patients to PM&R outpatient clinics. Regardless of its source, pain has a negative impact on patients’ lives and causes hospital admissions despite the risk of infection. This effect is more prominent in patients with fibromyalgia and neuropathic pain.