Clinical audit and neurology.

A population audit of first clinic attendance with suspected epilepsy

OBJECTIVE To assess the quality of clinical care at first clinic attendance in children with suspected epilepsy from a defined geographical population. METHOD All hospital- and community-based consultant paediatricians in Nottingham City region, UK, were asked to collaborate with a retrospective clinical audit identifying children seen between January 2001 and March 2002. The British Paediatr...

Requests for electroencephalography in a district general hospital: retrospective and prospective audit.

OBJECTIVES To determine the number of inappropriate requests for electroencephalography (EEG) and whether guidelines on use could reduce this number. DESIGN Audit with retrospective and prospective components. SETTING EEG department in district general hospital and centre for neurology and neurosurgery. PARTICIPANTS Retrospective: 368 at the general hospital and 143 patients at the neurol...

An audit of therapeutic drug monitoring of anticonvulsants.

An audit of therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) of anticonvulsants was performed to assess both its use and misuse in the management of patients with epilepsy. Over a four week period all samples received for phenytoin, carbamazepine, sodium valproate and phenobarbitone assays were included in the audit. The aims were to establish the source of the specimens, the reasons for the requests and to a...

An audit of children referred with suspected epilepsy

Members of the British Paediatric Neurology Association were invited to participate in a national audit of children presenting with a possible diagnosis of epilepsy. The audit was based on a 'standard' or set of pre-determined questions drawn up by an advisory audit group. The audit form comprised a total of 30 questions divided into four sections addressing history, examination, investigation,...

An Audit of Perioperative Antimicrobial Prophylaxis: Time to Take Action