In Hospital 24 Hour Observation of Syncope Patients

Summary

Syncope is very common and has a broad differential diagnosis. Guidelines on syncope recommend to apply guideline based syncope algorithm (SA) to identify low- / intermediate risk syncope patients and recommend to discharge these patients. The time window when to discharge these patients is not defined in the guidelines. In current medical practice low- / intermediate risk syncope patients are either immediately discharged or discharged after 24-hour observation with telemetry (TM). There seems to be an equipoise for both treatment strategies in current medical practice for these low risk syncope patients. A randomized controlled trial to compare discharge after 24 hour observation including TM with immediate discharge has never been done on the Cardiac Emergency Room (CER).

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

All patients that are assessed as low- and intermediate risk syncope, are eligible for inclusion in this trial.

The initial syncope evaluation includes:

1. Complete and thorough history taking of the syncope event and past medical history
2. Physical examination including supine and standing BP measurement and
3. 12 lead ECG.

Exclusion Criteria:

A potential patient who meets any of the following criteria will be excluded from participation in this study:

1. Those aged \<18 years
2. Those in whom syncope / transient loss of consciousness co-exist with trauma or other serious condition identified in the CER (massive bleeding, pulmonary embolus) or any high-risk features upon assessment with guideline based SA
3. Those with any other conditions then syncope / transient loss of consciousness for which admission is required (including social indication for admission, etc.)
4. Contraindication for early discharge as the discretion of the responsible physician
5. Those with a learning disability
6. Those presenting with pre-syncope
7. Those who are unwilling to provide informed consent (those will be asked to be enrolled for the SYNCOPE R.I.S.C-registry)

Conditions2

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