AI Summary & Key Takeaways
AI InsightMost patients were diagnosed with chronic respiratory and cardiac diseases.
📌 3 Key Takeaways
Abstract
Introduction: We investigated the characteristics and outcomes in elderly patients with non-traumatic dyspnea who arrived at the emergency department by ambulance.Materials and Method: This retrospective descriptive study included patients aged ≥65 years, who arrived at the emergency department by ambulance with a chief complaint respiratory distress, between January 1 and December 31, 2018. We recorded age, sex, time and day of admission, season, length of stay in the emergency department, comorbidities, interventions, treatments, consultations, emergency department diagnoses, and patient outcomes.Results: Of the 4089 elderly patients who arrived by ambulance, 16% (n=655) had respiratory distress. Mean patient ages was 78.23±0.30 (65–98) years and 52.1% were female. Most admissions occurred in winter (30.7%). The most common comorbiditiesincludedhypertension(74.4%),chronicobstructivepulmonarydisease (48.1%), heart failure (45.8%), and coronary artery disease (37.9%). The most common emergency department diagnoses included chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation (32.6%), pneumonia (31.1%), heart failure (26.1%), and hypertensive pulmonary edema (8%). The consultation rate was 65%. Notably, 47.3% of patients were discharged from the emergency department, 6.4% were admitted to wards, and 34.5% were admitted to the intensive care unit. The in-hospital mortality rate was 3.3%. Conclusions: The prevalence of dyspnea in elderly patients arriving at the emergency department by ambulance was higher in our study than in previous studies. We observed a high hospitalization rate with most admissions to the intensive care unit. Most patients were diagnosed with chronic respiratory and cardiac diseases.