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[Which patients does the neurologist assist? Basis for a curriculum in neurology]
J E Ferri-de-Barros1, R Nitrini
1Divisão de Neurologia do Hospital das Clínicas (HC) da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo (FMUSP), Brasil.
Objective:
To present the most frequent diagnosis of patients referred to a neurologist and to discuss the importance of this finding for the definition of the curriculum in Neurology.
Background:
The development of subspecialties of Neurology is interfering in the definition of what should be taught to train a physician or a neurologist. The knowledge of which are the most common neurological diseases may contribute to construct these curricula.
Method:
The initial diagnosis in 1815 outpatients referred to the neurologic service of an university-affiliated public hospital in São Paulo, Brazil, were analyzed.
Results:
The most common diagnosis, in decreasing order of frequency were: headache, epilepsy, mental disorders, cerebrovascular disease, head injury, polyneuropathy, vestibular syndrome, spastic crural paraparesis, extrapyramidal syndrome, dementia, intracranial hypertension and facial palsy.
Conclusion:
The importance of the subspecialties in the curriculum should be related to the frequency of the neurologic diseases in the community.