• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.14-22
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• 1998

Purpose : Cancer is a common cause for admission to emergency room(ER). Cancer patient present to ER with undiagnosed cancer, acute vague problem of cancer, or treatment related complication. But there is little information on the magnitute of the problems in the Korea. The purposes of our study were to evaluate the appropriateness of care for oncologic emergencies in Korea. Materials and Methods : This study was undertaken of all cancer patients above 15 years old presenting to the Seoul National University Hospital ER, who visited during the period from Oct. 16 to Nov. 15, 1997. ER record was reviewed and ER doctors evaluated patients' reason for visiting ER, appropriateness in patients' utilization of ER, oncology emergency Results : 266 cancer patients(17.4% of total patients) visited ER during this period and 166 cancer patients(62.4%) utilized inappropriately ER. Their average stay is 32.0 hours and 65.8% of them stayed for 6 hours. There were complaints of patients such as pain(44.8%), abdomen distension(9.4%), and dyspnea(7.5%). The most common oncologic emergency in ER during this study were gastrointestinal(34.0%), neurologic(21%), hematologic(8.0%), infectious(7.0%), respiratory(6.0%), and genitourinary(5.0%). Conclusion : For the care of symptoms like pain, most of cancer patients utilize ER inappropriately due to lack of attention from primary health delivery system. For the better care, the palliative medicine should be established in Korea.