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Volume 7 Issue 2 (February, 2019)

Original Articles

Assessment of Altered Mental Status among Patients Admitted to Emergency Department- An Observational Study
Hardip Singh, Bhupinder Singh, Ashwani Kumar Sharma, Rajiv Sharma, Harsh Bala Gupta, Abhinav Shoor

Background: Altered mental status is broadly defined as a change in cognitive function or level of consciousness. For patients with altered mental status of any cause, follow-up with a neurologist is important because it often takes time for cognitive function to normalize, if it does at all, and issues regarding cognitive disability often need to be addressed. Hence; under the light of above mentioned data, we planned the present study  to explore the etiologies and risk factors responsible for altered mental status (AMS) in an emergency department (ED). Materials & methods: The present study was a prospective study conducted on 250 patients of Altered Mental Status attending medical emergency department of Guru Nanak Dev Hospital, Amritsar.  During this study investigations were performed according to the signs and symptoms of patients presenting to medical emergency department till the most appropriate etiology of Altered Mental Status was achieved. All the results were tabulated and compared as per standard statistical protocol.  Data were entered in MS excel.   Results were expressed in percentage. Univariate regression curve and chi-square test were used for assessment of level of significance. Results: Out of total 250 patients, 22.8 percent of the patients belonged to the age group of 51 to 60 years. 19.6 percent of the patients and 15.6 percent of the patients belonged to the age group of 41 to 50 years and 61 to 70 years respectively. 9.2 percent of the patients and 7.2 percent of the patients each belonged to the age group of 71 to 80 years, 11 to 20 years and 21 to 30 years.  Metabolic, cerebrovascular and infective were the most common major category of diagnosis encountered in the present study. Conclusion: It is important for Emergency physicians to be knowledgeable about the etiologies of patients with AMS in general and special subgroups, including seasonal and epidemiological tendencies in the area.
Key words: Altered mental status, Emergency department.

Received: 3 December  2018                                     Revised: 27 December 2018                    Accepted: 28 December 2018

Corresponding Author: Dr. Bhupinder Singh, Associate professor, Dept. of Medicine, Govt. Medical College, Amritsar, India, 143001

This article may be cited as: Singh H, Singh B, Sharma AK, Sharma R, Gupta HB, Shoor A. Assessment of Altered Mental Status among Patients Admitted to Emergency Department: An Observational Study. J Adv Med Dent Scie Res 2019;7(1):18-21.

 
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