Emergency Care for Pediatric and Adult Patients Affected by Complex Vascular Malformations

Abstract

Objectives: To characterize the experiences of patients with vascular malformations (VMs) when seeking care for acute or emergent health needs. Methods: Semistructured qualitative interviews and survey study. Setting: National recruitment through patient advocacy groups and multidisciplinary vascular anomaly clinics. Patients/Participants: Adult patients and parents of children with self-reported VM. Results: We interviewed 25 young adult patients and 34 parents. We received survey responses from 138 adult patients and 73 parents who answered all items of interest (analytic cohort = 211). Interview participants described negative experiences with emergency care related to 4 themes: (1) delayed or inadequate care, (2) lack of competent, knowledgeable clinicians, (3) lack of collegial collaboration, and (4) insufficient trust of clinicians in parent’s or patient’s knowledge. Patients and parents reported an average of 1.7 and 2.6 VM-related health problems requiring emergent management in the prior year, respectively. In multivariable logistic regression, having at least one acute or emergent problem in the prior year was associated with household income ≥$100 000 (odds ratio = 0.34, 95% confidence interval, 0.17–0.70), but not gender, race, and ethnicity, age, having a VM specialist, or primary care doctor’s knowledge of VMs. Conclusions: Many patients with VMs require emergent or acute care for complications of their VM. Patients with lower household incomes are more likely to experience these emergent events. Negative experiences often focused on nonsupportive clinician behaviors. Future studies should develop tools to empower patient self-advocacy and provide high-yield information to nonspecialist clinicians.