Alcohol-related attendances at an emergency department - a twelve months follow-up study. A retrospective hospital data analysis of epidemiology and consecutive admission in the year 2009 vs. 2014

Objectives: The aim of this study was the investigation of alcohol-related patients visits in an Emergency Department on possible epidemiological changes of the patient's characteristics and the consecutive patients admission within the last 5 years. Methods: A retrospective survey for alcohol associated ED visits was carried out for both years. Patients with at min. 18 years and an alcohol-related index ED visit in 2009 and 2014 were included in this study. In the first step the analysis of the ED documentation took place, and then the digital clinic documentation was examined concerning psychiatric and somatic comorbidity, furthermore alcohol-related ED representation and consecutive hospital admission. The data were complemented with general epidemiological figures of the ED and the admission rate in the department of addiction medicine of the hospital given by the medical controlling. Results: The psychiatric patient lay in both years solidly at the 3rd place with rel. portion of approx. 13 % regarding all disciplines. Approx. 25 % in 2009 and 30 % in 2014 were alcohol-related in both years. 596 in 2009 and 1.021 in 2014 alcohol-related ED visits could be identified. The portion from up to 48h - length of stay has increased. Patients with comorbidity have a longer length of stay. In both years a large part of the patients is male (approx. 70 %) and on an average 45 years old. Discussion: The characteristics of the patients have not changed substantially. However, a change of the case figures can be observed in the frequency of the ED visits and the length of stay in the department of addiction medicine. Male gender, younger age and psychiatric comorbidity show risk factors for the ED visit rate.