Published in

Wiley, Emergency Medicine Australasia, 6(34), p. 936-942, 2022

DOI: 10.1111/1742-6723.14016

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Epidemiology, clinical presentations and outcome of patients presenting to the emergency department after a COVID‐19 vaccination: An observational study

This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.

Full text: Unavailable

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Orange circle
Postprint: archiving restricted
Red circle
Published version: archiving forbidden
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

AbstractObjectiveThe World Health Organization declared the COVID‐19 pandemic on 11 March 2020. In 2021, several vaccines were provisionally approved to reduce the risk of transmission and hospitalisation of COVID‐19 infection. A surge in COVID‐19 vaccination was seen between August and October 2021 in Victoria, Australia. We hypothesised this led to an increase in ED presentations.MethodsPatients in the present study were adults who presented to the ED within 21 days of receiving a dose of a COVID‐19 vaccine between 11 August 2021 and 14 November 2021. All cases underwent chart reviews to extract epidemiological features, clinical presentations, ED assessments, investigations and disposition.ResultsNotably, 968 patients were included in the study, comprising 6.1% of all ED presentations during the study period. The median age was 31 years. 82.9% of patients were younger than 45 years. 20.1% of patients arrived by ambulance. Chest pain was the most common presenting complaint (43.6%), followed by headache (10.3%) and palpitations (8.2%). The most common investigations were a full blood examination (73.5%), an ECG (63.8%) and serum troponin (49.1%). 64.8% of patients were directly discharged home and 22.1% were sent home after a short stay admission. Only 2.2% of patients were admitted to the hospital.ConclusionA majority of patients who presented to the ED after their COVID vaccinations were young and discharged home after the initial assessment. These presentations have significantly increased the workload in prehospital settings and EDs, contributing to increased investigation usage, ED treatment space occupancy, and increased costs to the health system.