[Neurology and practical emergency medicine].

From neurological point of view some important acute situations are discussed. These are: seizures, radicular pain attacks, headache-attacks, stroke, impaired consciousness of uncertain origin. The two main criteria of acuity, i.e.: dramatic and dangerous, will combine in many cases, but dissociate sometimes. This has to be considered especially in those cases where acute danger exists although a dramatic picture is missing, for example in subarachnoid hemorrhage with poor symptomatology and in pareses or cross section syndromes without pain. The primary contacted physician is able to contribute a great deal to further diagnosis and treatment through exact primary observation which is important in acute syndromes because of their tendency to change rapidly and to present under different features when the patient arrives in hospital. This concerns above all: differentiation of seizures, differentiation of stroke and differentiation of impaired consciousness. Besides the primary dramatic situation and acute therapy it is important not to neglect the necessity of further diagnostic particularly in seizure patients who recover quickly after the acute situation but nevertheless need to be brought to sufficient diagnostic and treatment.