Turkish Journal of Geriatrics 2010 , Vol 13, Issue 1
THE EVALUATION OF GERIATRIC PATIENTS WITH HEADACHE ADMITTED TO THE EMERGENCY UNIT
Filiz KOÇ1, Zeynep KEKEÇ2, Seranat BÜYÜK2
1Çukurova Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Nöroloji Anabilim Dalı ADANA
2Çukurova Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Acil Tıp Anabilim Dalı ADANA
Introduction: Neurological problems are common in the elderly, especially in the emergency unit. Headache is one of them, and it can be the first and sometimes the only symptom of a serious disease. We aimed to retrospectively examine the patients admitted to the emergency room with a complaint of headache only, and to collect data for epidemiological studies.

Materials and Method: Age and gender besides the type and cause of headache, rate of hospitalization and distribution of patients admitted to the Emergency Room with a complaint of headache were examined from their records.

Results: Eighty-four patients out of 3851, accepted to the Cukurova University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Emergency between January 2006 and December 2007, had a complaint of headache. Forty nine (58.3%) of the cases were female while 35 (41.6%) of them were male. The onset was acute in 66 cases and subacute in 18 cases. The most common causes of headache were hypertensive attacks and cerebrovascular diseases. Fifty-one (60.1%) cases were hospitalized while 29 (34.5%) were sent home with a prescription, and four (4.7%) patients refused hospitalization.

Conclusion: In the elderly population, headache is predominant in females and mainly develops secondary to another disease. Thus, patients complaining of a headache should be investigated etiologically. Keywords : Headache; Elderly; Emergency room