Article Text
Statistics from Altmetric.com
The recent UK national confidential enquiry into patient outcome and death (NCEPOD) from subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) identified a number of issues pertinent to the early diagnosis and investigation of patients presenting with acute headache.1 The NCEPOD investigators should be congratulated on this excellent nationwide survey. Their efforts will not only improve the care of patients with SAH but also those with other acute headache disorders.
There is evidence of widespread good practice, with prompt diagnosis and treatment for many patients. However, as in many such surveys, it is often the gaps and failings that are most revealing. For example,
-
32% of secondary care hospitals had no protocol or policy to investigate and treat acute onset headache.
-
43% (32 of 75) of patients in primary care had their diagnosis of aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage overlooked, a delay that may have affected the outcome in 72% (23/32).
-
13% (49 of 383) …
Footnotes
-
Contributors SW wrote the initial draft and DN redrafted it. Both authors agreed on the submitted version.
-
Competing interests None.
-
Provenance and peer review Commissioned; externally peer reviewed. This paper was reviewed by Ed Dunn, Leeds.
Linked Articles
- Editors' choice
Read the full text or download the PDF:
Other content recommended for you
- Differentiation between traumatic tap and aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage: prospective cohort study
- Thunderclap headache syndrome presenting to the emergency department: an international multicentre observational cohort study
- Utility analysis of management strategies for suspected subarachnoid haemorrhage in patients with thunderclap headache with negative CT result
- Delay in Transit: selected recommendations from the NCEPOD report on acute bowel obstruction
- Thunderclap headache
- ACUTE HEADACHE IN THE EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT
- Thunderclap headache
- Management of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage: a national survey of current practice
- Management of patients presenting to the emergency department with sudden onset severe headache: systematic review of diagnostic accuracy studies
- Reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome