This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
High number of ED visits recorded in patients with epilepsy
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
More than 830,000 visits were made to emergency departments by patients with uncontrolled epilepsy in 2012, according to research presented at the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting.
Gurkirpal Singh, MD, clinical professor of medicine at Stanford University, and colleagues wrote that the direct costs of these visits totaled more than $1 billion.
"About 1% of U.S. adults have epilepsy," Singh and colleagues wrote in their abstract. "Many are noncompliant with medications, possibly leading to preventable ED visits."
The researchers used the 2012 Nationwide Emergency Department Sample to analyze the prevalence of ED visits with a primary diagnosis of epilepsy among adults aged 18 years and older.
Results showed 830,437 ED visits with a primary diagnosis of epilepsy. Prevalence was highest in adults aged 18 to 44 years, but most of the patients in this group (88%) were treated in the ED and discharged. Researchers reported that 50% of patients aged 65 to 84 years and 60% of patients aged at least 85 years required hospitalization.
In addition, Medicaid and Medicare covered 56% of all ED visits.
"U.S. National Emergency Department Sample data show that there were 830,437 visits in people with a primary diagnosis of epilepsy in 2012, with direct costs of over 1 billion dollars," Singh and colleagues concluded. "Measures to avoid preventable ED visits in these patients, such as improved treatment compliance and other potential interventions should be considered. This is especially true in the younger age group of 18-44 years age who have the highest prevalence of [ED] visits." – by Chelsea Frajerman Pardes
Reference:
Singh G, et al. Emergency Department Visits for Uncontrolled Epilepsy in US: A National Perspective. Presented at: American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting; April 15-21, 2016; Vancouver, British Columbia.
Disclosures: Singh was a consultant for and received grants from Acorda Therapeutics. Please see the full abstract for a complete list of all other authors' relevant financial disclosures.