Medical Centric

ACUTE ABDOMEN

Men's Health, Uncategorized, Women's Health / By

ACUTE ABDOMEN

Acute abdomen refers to a sudden onset of severe abdominal pain

  • An acute abdomen may be indicative of a major problem with one of the organs in the abdomen such as the inflamed appendix, inflamed gallbladder, a ruptured spleen, or perforated ulcer in the intestine.
  • It is a life-threatening medical emergency, requiring urgent and specific diagnosis

CAUSES

It has a large number of possible causes.

  • Sickle cell anaemia
  • Kidney stone
  • Ruptured ectopic pregnancy
  • Ruptured spleen
  • Acute appendicitis
  • Acute peptic ulcer
  • Adrenal crisis
  • Ovarian torsion
  • Bowel obstruction
  • Biliary colic
  • Acute intestinal ischemia acute pancreatitis
  • Acute peritonitis
  • Trauma such as from stab, gunshot wounds to blunt abdominal injuries.
  • Inflammatory bowel disease
  • Abdominal aortic aneurysm
  • Acute urinary retention
  • Pelvic inflammatory disease
  • Typhoid
  • Myocardial infarction
  • Hepatitis
  • Severe liver failure
  • Pancreatitis

SYMPTOMS

  • Abdominal pain
  • Nausea and vomiting
  • Bloody diarrhea
  • Constipation
  • Lethargy
  • Abdominal swelling
  • Shock
  • Anorexia
  • Elevated temperature
  • Silent or noisy bowel sound
  • Muscle spasm
  • Presence of mass

DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT

Features of pain and associated symptoms which are likely to provide important clues during diagnosis are:

  • Type of onset – if it is sudden
  • Quality – if it is dull, sharp (in the case of gut obstruction), aching (such as is found in pelvic inflammatory disease), intensified by breathing, or tearing.
  • Intensity – if it is severe, moderate, or mild
  • Temporal features – if it is continuous or pulsating
  • Frequency and duration of pain
  • If it is intensified by motion, relieved or aggravated by meals.

It is expected that the doctor carefully considers the patient’s symptoms, especially in relation to organs that are more likely to cause the acute condition.

Prolonged investigation of the condition may be used for patient who does require urgent medical care.

To avoid error of omission and separate those who need immediate surgery from those who require watchful expectancy, or those who require medical rather than surgical management, careful and complete data collection is the diagnostic aid.

First, the patient is checked for symptoms such as fever, or evidence of shock. After which a complete and systematic examination of all organs is done

It is of great importance that the heart and lung be carefully checked. This is done to determine if an extra abdominal cause for abdominal pain is present as well as to determine if the patient satisfies all the condition for surgery.

An abdominal investigation including pelvic and rectal gives information about the type and degree on which diagnosis can be based and recommendation is made for or against surgical procedures.

The patient may need to point to the area where the pain is more intense. After which the standard techniques of auscultation, palpitation, and percussion is performed.

Urgency of acute abdomen is diagnosed by performing few specific tests which may be relied upon to give clear answers to the exact cause. These includes:

  • Urine test for signs of blood, and infection
  • Blood test
  • X-ray

TREATMENT

Treatment option depends on the cause and once diagnosis has been made, medical intervention and surgical intervention, or both is necessary to treat a patient.

Treatment may include:

Fluid therapy given intravenously

Blood replacement

Nasogastric suction

Drug therapy