Syndromic surveillance is usually presented as relevant for event detection. As the data collected automatically from data sources is detailed enough (e.g. ICD10 codes), it may contribute to assess and quantify the burden of health events and describe their main epidemiological features. In France, besides the national liver transplant data, no surveillance data are available for ALF. Since ALF is severe, threatens the vital prognosis in absence of intensive care, may require liver transplantation and is quite well characterized clinically, patients are very likely to be diagnosed with ALF in ED at the onset phase. ALF is caused by viral infections (hepatitis A, B, C, D or E viruses), drug or toxic exposures, autoimmune or metabolic disorders (Wilson's disease), some of which have public health implications (viral hepatitis, drug or toxicological adverse effects). We therefore hypothesized that surveillance of ALF through an ED syndromic surveillance system would be feasible. The aim of our work was to explore the relevance of ED data to describe the main features and assess the burden of ALF.
Objective
The objective of this study was to assess the interest and feasibility of using syndromic surveillance data from emergency departments (ED) for the description of clinical and epidemiological characteristics of patients with acute liver failure (ALF) during the 2010-2012 period in France.