Cancer patients presenting to the emergency department in northwest syria

Abstract

Emergency departments face a high density of patients as they address many patient groups. Cancer patients constitute a significant proportion of the population presenting to the emergency department for many reasons, including new symptoms, exacerbation of existing problems, treatment complications, and disease progression. This study can be helpful in determining treatment approach, planning, and service delivery. All cancer patients admitted to the emergency department between 1 January 2022 and 31 March 2022 were included in the study. Medical records were retrospectively analyzed from hospital records. A total of 90 patients were included in the study. Data were collected from the patient records by examining the reasons for admission, demographic and clinical data, diagnoses, and laboratory tests. The most common cancers were breast (43.3%), colon (20.0%), lung (12.2%). In the last 1 month, 73.3% of patients visited the emergency department 1 time, 24.4% 2 times, and 2.2% 3 times. The association between the number of visits to the emergency department in the last 1 month and the ECOG groups was statistically significant (p=0.020). Patients presented to the emergency department mainly with pain (66.7%) and nausea/vomiting (57.8%). The most common cancers in patients admitted to the emergency department in our study are similar to the literature. It has been reported in the literature that the symptoms detected in our study are potentially less severe, and emergency room visits can be reduced if patients are encouraged to self-manage similar symptoms through education. From this point of view, to reduce the number of cancer patients applying to the emergency service in regions of internal turmoil and conflict such as Syria, it is very important to identify the reasons for patient admission and to provide training emphasizing the self-management of their symptoms. [Med-Science 2022; 11(4.000): 1697-701]

Keywords

• cancer patient
• emergency department
• after the civil war in northern syria