Adolescents in the Emergency Room –Three Years in a Pediatric Medical-Surgical Emergency Department

Background: World Health Organization defines adolescence as the group from 10 to 19 years old. This stage is characterized by fast physical, psychological and social changes. Despite being overall healthy, high prevalence of risk behaviors rises morbidity in this group. It is important to recognize the leading causes of adolescent admission in the emergency services, to invest in prevention, early intervention and promote health.

Objective: Characterize adolescent admissions in emergency department.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of informatic records of adolescent emergency episodes, observed from January, 2014 to December, 2016, at the Pediatric Emergency Department of Centro Hospitalar do Baixo Vouga, EPE.

Results: In the analyzed period, there were registered 38363 emergency adolescents episodes. 67% of the admitions were due to “DISEASE”, 24,1% due to “ACCIDENTS” (road, sports, personal, work, domestic and school accidents), 0,7% were “INTOXICATIONS”, 0,5% for “ASSAULT” episodes and 0,7% admissions of “PREGNANT AND PARTURIENT”.

One third of the “DISEASE” admissions were due to respiratory disease and one sixth due to digestive disease. Mental health and behavioral issues were responsible for 4% oh these diagnostics.

58,3% of the adolescents was observed only by Pediatrics specialists, and the others needed collaboration from other specialties.

Conclusion: 26% of the admissions were due to preventable causes, like accidents, intoxications, agressions or pregnancy. It’s urgent to act at primary prevention level, but it’s also important to take every contact chances to identify those at risk and decrease this group morbidity.