Inpatient Burden of Neurological Disorders: A Route Map for Allocation of Resources and Postgraduate Training

Delon Dsouza; Saji K John; Raghunandan Nadig; Shagun Bhardwaj; Grk Sarma; Sagar Badachi; Kurian Thomas; Amrutha Avati; Sonia Shivde; Thomas Mathew

doi:10.7759/cureus.51311

Inpatient Burden of Neurological Disorders: A Route Map for Allocation of Resources and Postgraduate Training

Cureus. 2023 Dec 29;15(12):e51311. doi: 10.7759/cureus.51311. eCollection 2023 Dec.

Authors

Delon Dsouza¹, Saji K John², Raghunandan Nadig³, Shagun Bhardwaj⁴, Grk Sarma⁵, Sagar Badachi⁵, Kurian Thomas⁶, Amrutha Avati⁶, Sonia Shivde⁶, Thomas Mathew⁵

Affiliations

¹ Neurology and Stroke, Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, Worcester, GBR.
² Research, St. John's Medical College Hospital, Bengaluru, IND.
³ Stroke, St. John's Medical College Hospital, Bengaluru, IND.
⁴ Neuropsychology, St. John's National Academy of Health Sciences, Bengaluru, IND.
⁵ Neurology, St. John's Medical College Hospital, Bengaluru, IND.
⁶ Neurology, St. John's National Academy of Health Sciences, Bengaluru, IND.

Abstract

Introduction There are limited data regarding the profile of inpatient neurological disorders in India. Understanding the spectrum of diseases and the profile of patients admitted in an inpatient setting will help to streamline services, allocate resources, develop management protocols, design curricula, and improve training programs of postgraduate students in neurology training. Objective The objective of this study is to study the profile of inpatient neurological disorders in 1000 consecutive patients admitted to a tertiary care neurological center. Methods Data from 1000 consecutive inpatients admitted to the Neurology Department at St. John's Medical College Hospital, Bengaluru from January 2018 to October 2018 were collected from the medical records. The data obtained from the case records were entered into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet for descriptive analysis. Results The average age of the patients was 48 years (±18.18) and 606 of the 1000 patients were males. Strokes, including arterial and venous strokes, formed the major inpatient caseload, accounting for 48.7% of cases. Of these, 84% had ischemic arterial strokes, 7.4% had intracranial hemorrhage, and 8.4 % had cerebral sinus venous strokes; 19.3% of patients were admitted for seizures while 8.2% of patients were admitted for headache. Meningitis was diagnosed in 5.2% of patients; 4.8% of patients had central nervous system demyelinating and autoimmune diseases. A number of other diagnoses comprised less than 2.5% each and included movement disorders, peripheral nerve, spine and nerve roots disorders, neuromuscular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, and medical and functional illness. Conclusion The most common disorders in the inpatient setting are stroke, seizure, headache, meningitis, and autoimmune/demyelinating disorders. These disorders should receive priority while planning the allocation of resources, educational curriculum, training, and teaching programs.

Keywords: autoimmune disorder; demyelinating disorder; epilepsy; headache; inpatient neurological disorders; stroke.