Clinical Outcomes Following Implementation of a Formalized “Flashes and Floaters” Emergency Department Triage Protocol

Abstract

To report outcomes of patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) with new-onset visual flashes and/or floaters following implementation of a formalized triage protocol allowing eligible patients to be discharged for prompt outpatient ophthalmic examination. Retrospective consecutive case series. Patient characteristics, protocol eligibility, and clinical outcomes were recorded for adult patients triaged within a formal "flashes and floaters" protocol at a single academic ED. A total of 457 patients presented for 471 unique ED encounters with a chief complaint of visual flashes and/or floaters between October 2014 and May 2018. In all, 61% of patient encounters (287/471) met protocol criteria for prompt outpatient ophthalmic examination, of whom 94% (269/287) were examined within 48 hours. Final diagnoses of protocol-eligible patients were posterior vitreous detachment only (73%, 197/269), retinal break(s)(10%, 26/269), migraine (5%, 14/269), and no cause or new cause found (10%, 27/269). No protocol-eligible patients had retinal detachment or diagnoses requiring emergent diagnostic or therapeutic care (0%, 95% CI=0%-1.1%). Final diagnoses following 175 encounters not meeting criteria for deferred examination included posterior vitreous detachment only (25%, 43/175), retinal break(s) (19%, 33/175), macula-involving retinal detachment (13%, 22/175), macula-sparing retinal detachment (11%, 19/175), retinal arterial occlusion (2%, 3/175), and stroke (0.6%, 1/175). The Cohen kappa for agreement on protocol eligibility between the ED physician and ophthalmologist was 0.85. A formalized ED "flashes and floaters" triage protocol may help identify patients for whom prompt outpatient ophthalmic examination may be more safely considered.