[Third-level hospital emergency department visits by patients with acute asthma. 1990]

In the natural history of an asthmatic patient's disease, emergency room visits can be significant, incidental, or accidental occurrences from the therapeutic, preventive, clinical, or epidemiological perspective.

In order to find out the characteristics of the severely asthmatic patients who visit the third-level emergency room of the hospital asking for medical attention, we studied their visits, as opposed to those of other patients, for a one-year period.

We registered 477 emergency care patients for asthma (1.30/day) which implies visits to the hospital watch of 0.71%. It is maintained 24 hours a day, predominantly in the first three days of the week (52.41%), the last ten days of the month (36.68%), the second trimester of the year (34.48%), and the month of May (20%). Compared to the rest of the population who also went for emergency room care, the asthmatic patient had lower average age (44 vs. 50), a majority of women (67.29% vs. 48%) and more frequent visits (36.74% vs. 18.59%). In comparison with studies in other countries, we register a higher number of admission but a lower of relapses (4.06%).

Emergency room visits by severely asthmatic patients is an epidemiological index of the public health significance of the disease as it is a reflection of the degree of control and type of asthma. It is an important factor in determining demand of emergency care given the frequency of visits and the rates of admission and relapse.