Prevalence of non-traumatic musculoskeletal pathology as main complaint and its impact in a emergency department

Background: Non-traumatic musculoskeletal pathology (NTMP) generates a high healthcare demand in primary care, however, European studies designed to assess its real impact in Emergency Departments are scarce. The present study aims to determine the prevalence of NTMP and its impact in Emergency Department of a university hospital in Madrid. Material and method: Two thousand randomized medical registries were reviewed from 2008 to 2011. The epidemiological data collected were, main complaints, time consumed, image test requests, and need of further assessment within a month. Results: Prevalence of NTMP was 13.8% (95% CI; 12.1%-15.4%) of all patients. The most frequent musculoskeletal complaint was lumbar pain. An imaging test was requested in 79.1% of all the NTMP cases assessed. Patients with NTMP consumed an average of 79 minutes, with 17% of them requesting a new urgent assessment within the first month. Conclusions: The results of this study show that NTMP is the leading cause for emergency department visits in our area, producing the highest consumption of time and the highest frequency of new queries for the same reason within a month. The overuse of the emergency services and the lack of medical training in the management of this type of pathology can cause this phenomenon. During the design of strategies to optimize patients care in emergency departments, the importance of this type of pathology should be taken into account.