[Neuropathic pain as the reason for visiting Neurology: an analysis of its frequency].

INTRODUCTION

Neuropathic pain (NP) is defined as pain that begins with or is caused by a primary injury or by a dysfunction in the nervous system.

AIMS: Our aim was to evaluate how often patients visit Neurology as outpatients with NP as the main reason for referral.

PATIENTS AND

METHODS

A descriptive, cross sectional study was carried out on the use of the health care services; patients attended for the first time in a Neurology Screening visit were included consecutively. The variables studied were the following: the number of first visits and the total number of patients attended per visiting session, rate of patients with NP per visiting day, the topography and probable causation of the NP, and the rate of patients referred to the monographic NP clinic; the different quantitative variables are expressed in terms of their mean and standard deviation (SD), whereas the qualitative variables are given as their absolute value and the percentage. A total of 1,972 patients were attended, of whom 1,422 (72.1%) were first visits, with an average of 17.5 (SD: 2.5) new patients per visiting session.

RESULTS

In all 113 patients clinically diagnosed with NP were identified, which represents a rate of 7.95% of the first visits.

CONCLUSIONS

NP may be among the most frequent causes of the demand for neurological ambulatory care. The most common causes of NP were found to be trigeminal neuralgia, post-herpes neuralgia and diabetic polyneuropathy.