Epidemiology and Outcomes of Acute Flank Pain in University-Affiliated Regional Emergency Medical Centers

Seon Tae Kim; Young Hwang; Seung Chol Park; Jea Whan Lee

doi:10.14777/uti.2018.13.01.14

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Kim, Hwang, Park, and Lee: Epidemiology and Outcomes of Acute Flank Pain in University-Affiliated Regional Emergency Medical Centers

Original Article

Urogenit Tract Infect 2018;13(1):14-20.

Published online: 19 April 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14777/uti.2018.13.01.14

Epidemiology and Outcomes of Acute Flank Pain in University-Affiliated Regional Emergency Medical Centers

Seon Tae Kim, Young Hwang, Seung Chol Park¹, Jea Whan Lee^1,

Departments of Emergency Medicine

¹Urology, Wonkwang University School of Medicine, Iksan, Korea

Correspondence to: Jea Whan Lee http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1368-1928 Department of Urology, Wonkwang University School of Medicine, 460 Iksan-daero, Iksan 54538, Korea Tel: +82-63-859-1335, Fax: +82-63-842-7379 E-mail: mygentlelove@gmail.com

Received 24 March 2018 Revised 14 April 2018 Accepted 14 April 2018

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose:

Acute abdominal pain accounts for 7-10% of all emergency department visits. The purpose of this study is to investigate the epidemiology and outcome of acute flank pain at regional emergency medical centers (EMC) and to investigate the necessity of urologists.

Materials and Methods:

We retrospectively reviewed all records of EMC visits for flank pain between 1 July 2015 and 30 June 2017. The renal colic was defined according to the code allocation of the Korean standard classification of disease-6 code N132, N200-N203, and N210-N211. The results of this study were retrospectively analyzed and the characteristics of the patients.

Results:

The total number of visits to the EMC was 67,792, and the number of visits for acute abdominal pain was 9,641. The number of visits for acute flank pain was 1,133 and the number of patients was 1,018. The departments included emergency medicine (n=235), urology (n=711), internal medicine (n=132), general surgery (n=19), gynecology (n=10), and others (n=26). The causes of urological flank pain were urolithiasis in 628 cases, infection in 41 cases, and other diseases in 42 cases. Among these, 244 cases were admitted, and 193 cases of them were urolithiasis patients, and 171 patients underwent stone removal surgery.

Conclusions:

According to our study, patients with flank pain accounted for 11.8% of patients with abdominal pain. However, considering hospitalization and frequency of surgery, it is necessary to take the national measurement for the long-term supply of urology.

Keywords: Renal colic, Epidemiology, Hospital emergency service

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Fig. 1.

Analysis of patient's arrival time in the emergency room.

Fig. 2.

Seasonal analysis.

Table 1.

Number and rate of patients admitted with renal colic

Variable	Data
All cases	67,792
Acute abdominal pain	9,641 (14.2)
Acute flank pain	1,133 (1.7)
Acute flank pain patient	1,018
Sex
Male	547 (53.7)
Female	471 (46.3)
Mean age (y)	53.8
Male	51.7
Female	56.3
Treated by urology cases	711
Treated by urology patient	622
Sex
Male	388 (62.4)
Female	234 (37.6)
Mean age (y)	52.8
Male	51.8
Female	55.3

Values are presented as number only or number (%).

Table 2.

Care trends of patients with acute flank pain in the emergency room

Variable	Data
All cases	1,251 (100)
Emerency medicine	273 (21.8)
Urology	722 (57.7)
Internal medicine	158 (12.6)
General surgery	22 (1.8)
Gynecology	11 (0.9)
Others	65 (5.2)
Diagnosis
Urinary stone	699 (61.7)
Infection	231 (20.4)
Others	203 (17.9)
After treatment
Inpatients	349 (30.8)
Outpatients	784 (69.2)
The final medical department	1,133 (100.0)
Emerency medicine	235 (20.7)
Urology	711 (62.8)
Internal medicine	132 (11.7)
General surgery	19 (1.7)
Gynecology	10 (0.9)
Others	26 (2.3)

Values are presented as number (%).

Table 3.

Care trend of urology patients in the emergency room

Variable	Data
The final urology treatment patient	711 (100.0)
Urinary stone	628 (88.3)
Infection	41 (5.8)
Others	42 (5.9)
After treament
Inpatients	244 (34.3)
Outpatients	467 (65.7)
Stone in inpatients	193 (79.1)
Patients undergoing surgery	171 (70.1)
Male	98 (57.3)
Female	73 (42.7)
Mean age (y)	55.6

Values are presented as number (%) or mean.

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