Pattern of inpatient referrals to dermatology at a tertiary care centre of South Rajasthan

Abstract

Background:Dermatologists besides providing service to patients in the outdoors, also play a vital role in the care of inpatients admitted to dermatology unit and other departments.Aims:The aim of this study was to evaluate the pattern of referrals sent to the dermatology department by other departments.Materials and Methods:The study included all inpatients referred to dermatology department of a tertiary care centre of South Rajasthan during a 5-year period from October 2008 to September 2013.Results:A total of 1560 consultations with 1603 diagnoses were recorded. Most (770; 49.3%) consultations were received from internal medicine, followed by surgery (177; 11.3%), pediatrics (104; 6.7%), psychiatry (86; 5.5%) and gynecology (69; 4.4%) wards. Infectious skin diseases were most common (29.7%) followed by eczema (12.0%) and drug reactions (9.0%).Conclusion:Dermatology referrals can enhance the dermatological knowledge of non-dermatologists to diagnose and manage common dermatoses thus improving overall patient care.

A retrospective study to evaluate the impact of in-patient dermatological consultations on diagnostic accuracy in a tertiary care setting

“…A recent study from India also showed a similar pattern with respect to the number of consultations from different departments. [ 10 ] However, in our study, gastroenterology, nephrology, hematology requests also formed a major share as seen in a study by Williams et al . [ 11 ] The substantial number of requests made by these specialties could be attributed to the number of patients admitted to their care.…”

Retrospective Analysis of Inpatient Dermatologic Consultations in a Residency Training Program

“…The most commonly consulted conditions highlighted in earlier studies encompass infectious dermatoses, eczema, and drug eruptions. 1,[8][9][10]12 However, in our research, drug eruptions accounted for most consultations, followed by eczema and infectious dermatoses (encompassing viral, fungal, and bacterial infections). Drug eruptions skin manifestations more prevalent among inpatients due to the administration of multiple medications during hospitalization constituted the largest category of consulted diseases in inpatient dermatology.…”

“…Consistent with prior studies, 1,3,4,7-11 the internal medicine department initiated the largest number of consultations. Research by Vinay et al, 3 Galimberti et al, 4 and Balai et al 10 indicated that almost half of the consultations originated from the internal medicine department. This finding aligns with our data (53.56%).…”

“…This trend might be due to the substantial number of inpatient admissions in internal medicine, compounded by the intricacy of the conditions treated and the extensive use of medications. 7,10 The high demand for consultations might also be driven by the rigorous and thorough physical examinations performed by internal medicine teams, leading to the detection of more lesions than by other departments. We found that the surgery and orthopedics departments had the second-and third-highest number of consultation requests, respectively, corroborating findings from earlier publications.…”

“…3,4 Therefore, dermatologists must be well versed in the characteristics of inpatient consultations. While the literature offers insights into inpatient dermatologic consultations in certain countries, 1,3,4,[7][8][9][10][11][12] data for Thailand remain sparse.…”