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