Results:
The hospital records show that 1078 patients were admitted to the two
tertiary hospitals’ PM&R outpatient clinics in April and May 2020. Of
these, 541 (50.2 %) of them were admitted to center A and 537 (49.8%)
were admitted to center B. Of the patients who applied to center A, 115
were admitted twice and 18 were three times. The remaining 408 patients
applied only once. In Center B, 106 patients applied twice, 25 patients
three times, and four patients four times. The remaining 402 patients
applied only once (Table 1).
In April, a total of 401 (188 and 213, respectively) and in May 677 (353
and 324, respectively) patients applied (Figure 1 and 2). The age of
patients ranges from 0 to 88 with a mean age of 45.4±14.9 (0-88) years
(47.2 and 43.1 for women and men, respectively) and there is no
statistically significant difference between the two centers in terms of
the age of the patients (p=0.863). While most of the admitted patients
were between the ages of 40 and 60 years, the number of patients aged< 18 years was the least. Among 1078 patients 606
(56%) were female. In both centers, the number of female patients was
higher than that of male patients (Table 1).
The most common reasons for admission were acute peripheral joint pain,
follow-up and prescription, acute low back pain, respectively (Table 2).
When stratified patients by age, the most common reason of admission was
peripheral arthralgia in all ages except < 18 years. In
this group, patients were admitted predominantly for follow-up. The most
frequent causes of follow-up and prescription were fibromyalgia and
neuropathic pain. When the distribution of the affected joints was
evaluated, although the most frequently affected joint was shoulder in
total, the number of patients with knee and shoulder pain were similar
over the age of 60 years (Table 3).
In addition, neuropathic pain was the cause of admission in 54 patients.
These patients had a diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome (n=14), ulnar
nerve entrapment or injury (n=3), other peripheral nerve injury (n=10),
polyneuropathy (n=9), zona zoster (n=2), lumbar disc herniation or
spinal stenosis (n=14), and cervical disc herniation (n=2). 112 out of
199 patients with low back pain and 56 out of 98 patients with neck pain
also had radicular pain.
Of the 1078 patients 893 had a prescription. The most prescribed
medication was non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) which were
prescribed to a total of 569 patients. This medication is followed by
pregabalin (Table 4). As far as the patients who were admitted for
prescription and follow-up are concerned, pregabalin and duloxetine were
prescribed the most.