Outcomes of Inpatient Child Neurology Consultations

Abstract

Child neurology covers a wide range of relevant topics. Both doctors and parents are concerned when a child complains of being unable to walk or having a headache, and they are afraid of postponing the diagnosis. The goal of this study was to assess pediatric neurology inpatient consults. A total of 1,669 requests for pediatric neurology inpatient consultations were reviewed retrospectively during a one-year period. Seizure and febrile seizure were the most common reasons for child neurology consultations (60,6% and 12.2%, respectively). Neuromotor developmental delay (5.7%), syncope (3.4%), headache (2.6%), altered mental status (2.1%), acute complaint of inability to walk (1.8%), facial nerve paralysis (1.4%), ataxia (1.2%), and monoparesis/hemiparesis (1.2%) were among the other reasons for child neurology consultations (1%). Fifty-seven patients (8.8%) who were consulted owing to a seizure were not diagnosed as having seizures. The most common cause of changed mental status was meningoencephalitis. Nine (47.4%) of the patients with acute inability to walk were evaluated as viral myositis. In a patient with acute neurological symptoms, there may be a simple underlying cause or a serious cause.