Geriatric Otolaryngologic Emergencies at a Teaching Hospital in Taiwan

Background: Many diseases are more common in older people than in younger people, and it may be more difficult to make a diagnosis because older patients often have nonspecific symptoms. The purpose of this study was to analyze the geriatric patients treated in an otolaryngology emergency room at a Taiwanese teaching hospital over a 5-year period. Methods: A retrospective review was performed on patients older than 18 years of age who presented in otolaryngology emergency rooms from January 2010 to December 2014. A total of 4101 patients were enrolled in this study. Patients aged older than 65 years of age were defined as the elderly group. The retrieved data incvluded age, gender, clinical presentations, and treatment modalities for further analysis. Results: A total of 502 patients (12.2%) were included in the elderly group. There were 287 males and 215 females ranging from 65 to 100 years of age with mean age of 75.7 ± 7.6. The most common need was pharyngolaryngology (n = 274; 54.6%) followed by otology (n = 128; 25.5%), rhinology (n = 77; 15.3%), and head and neck surgery (n = 23; 4.6%). Acute upper respiratory tract infection was the most frequent diagnosis. Foreign bodies were mostly found in the throat followed by the ears. Most patients with epistaxis sustained anterior nasal septum bleeding. More than 65% of the patients (335/502; 66.7%) were true emergencies. Conclusions: The non-emergent disease, acute upper respiratory tract infection was the most frequent diagnosis. Although geriatric patients had a variety of medical conditions, most can be managed with a conservative treatment strategy.