Risk Factors for Emergency Room Visit by Head and Neck Cancer Patients: A Longitudinal Cohort Study in the Korean Healthcare System.

Objective: Due to the application of multiple treatment modalities, a substantial proportion of patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) experience one or more emergency room (ER) visits or unplanned hospitalizations during or after treatment. We investigated HNC cases that visited ERs after cancer treatment to identify potential risk factors in the context of the Korean healthcare system.

Methods: This was a single-center cohort study of HNC patients who underwent cancer treatments at OOOO in 2019 (N = 566). The patients were treated with surgery alone (N = 184), surgery plus adjuvant therapy (N = 138), curative non-surgical treatment (radiation or chemo-radiation) (N = 209), or palliative treatments (N = 35). We followed up cases for up to 3 years, who visited the ER after (or during) cancer treatments and analyzed the main reasons and risk factors for ER visits.

Results: The rate of ER visits was 8.0% (N = 45) of patients with HNC (no. of ER visits, N = 70, 12.4%, mean = 1.56, range = 1-4), among which treatment-related ER visits made up 4.6%. Common reasons for ER visits were surgical site or wound problems (31.1% per patient, 22.9% per ER visits), and oral intake or feeding problems (22.2% per patient, 31.4% per ER visit). Tumor subsite (17.9% of treatment-related ER visits in hypopharynx cancer), tumor burden (8.6-12.2% in T2-4 and 6.7% in N+ status), and treatment modalities (surgery with adjuvant chemo-radiation, 19.4%) were identified as significant risk factors for ER visits, while patient age and comorbidities were not.

Conclusion: The most common causes for ER visits were wound and feeding problems in HNC patients, and tumor factors and treatment modalities were independent risk factors for ER visits. Adequate planning and management to address these problems could help reduce ER visits and costs and improve patient care.