[ENT Resident Activity in the Strasbourg Hospital ENT Emergency Clinic]

We present an original study about ENT resident activity in an emergency ENT clinic.

The emergency unit's activity was analyzed over a seven-Month period from December 1, 1999 to June 30, 2000. ENT residents reported patient age, gender, duration of consultation, symptoms, and care delivered as well as the level of emergency and referral (general practitioner, emergency unit, other clinic, direct).

A total of 147 emergency days were analyzed. During the study period, 1237 patients were examined, representing 8.4 patients per day and 26.5% of the ENT clinic outpatient activity. Mean patient age was 31.8 Years; 58% of the patient were male. Most of the cases did not correspond to true emergencies (53%). Half of the patients were not referred by a general practitioner. Emergency care was more justified when the patients were referred by a general practitioner or another emergency unit. The predominant pathological situations managed were acute external and middle ear otitis, epistaxis, angina, vertigo, and facial injuries.

Over half of the patients came to the emergency clinic spontaneously, presenting minor problems. These data can be explained by the fact that residents are permanently present at the ENT emergency clinic. It would be interesting to conduct a similar study in ENT emergency care units where the resident is not permanently present.