10.6084/m9.figshare.7907294.v1 Pelloni L. Pelloni L. Cazzaniga S. Cazzaniga S. Naldi L. Naldi L. Borradori L. Borradori L. Mainetti C. Mainetti C. Supplementary Material for: Emergency Consultations in Dermatology in a Secondary Referral Hospital in Southern Switzerland: A Prospective Cross-Sectional Analysis Karger Publishers 2019 Emergency Epidemiology Dermatology Skin diseases 2019-03-28 10:42:05 Dataset https://karger.figshare.com/articles/dataset/Supplementary_Material_for_Emergency_Consultations_in_Dermatology_in_a_Secondary_Referral_Hospital_in_Southern_Switzerland_A_Prospective_Cross-Sectional_Analysis/7907294 <b><i>Background/Aims:</i></b> The spectrum of dermatological emergencies is broad. Only a few studies have assessed the profile of dermatological conditions resulting in an emergency visit in a referral hospital. We sought to assess the conditions prompting an urgent dermatological visit and to compare the diagnoses with those made during the regular scheduled encounters. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> We performed a cross-sectional study of all patients with a cutaneous problem attending our emergency consultation during a 7-month period. The study variables were gender, age, duration of symptoms, diagnosis, need for hospitalization and/or follow-up. We further evaluated patients attending scheduled visits to compare the demographic characteristics and diagnoses between the two groups. <b><i>Results:</i></b> Six hundred fifty-two consecutive patients with an urgent dermatological consultation were included. Three hundred sixty (55.2%) were women and 292 (44.8%) were men. Infectious diseases (32.8%) as well as various forms of eczema (24.8%) constituted the most frequent causes for an emergency visit. Approximately 40% of emergency visits took place more than 1 week after the development of the cutaneous manifestations. The most frequent disorders seen in the 1,738 control patients included benign melanocytic and nonmelanocytic tumors (27.2%) and malignant skin lesions (11.5%). <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> Our study indicates that the dermatological diagnoses in the emergency visits significantly differ from those of the routinely scheduled appointments. In a significant portion of patients, the use of an emergency consultation was not justified. This study provides support to the idea that a specific training is required to manage dermatological emergencies and that efforts should be made to reduce unjustified emergency visit use.