Rational risk-adapted diagnosis of syncope in the emergency department

Syncope is a common symptom in the emergency department. While most causes are benign and self-limited not requiring extensive in-hospital evaluation, others are potentially life-threatening. The optimal evaluation of patients with syncope follows a risk-adapted diagnostic algorithm in order to exclude life-threatening causes and to identify patients at high risk for further deterioration e.g. structure heart disease requiring further diagnostic evaluation. Low risk patients can receive out patient treatment without further extensive diagnostic evaluation.