Clinical and Radiological Diagnosis in Acute Abdominal Emergencies

Abstract

BACKGROUND:Acute abdominal pain is a common presentation that requires immediate management. It includes traumatic and non-traumatic conditions of abdomen and if not diagnosed and treated promptly in the golden hours, it can lead to high mortality rate. Hence, this study was undertaken to correlate different modes of diagnosis which helps in deciding the immediate line of management proved to be lifesaving. OBJECTIVES: To analyse and compare the efficacy of clinical and radiological methods in early diagnosis of acute abdominal conditions. MATERIALS AND METHODS:This study includes patients admitted in emergency wards of Shadan General and Teaching Hospital, Hyderabad. Total 100 cases were included in this study who presented with acute abdomen. After thorough clinical examination they were subjected to Plain Xray Abdomen and Ultrasonography of abdomen and pelvis. RESULTS: All 100 patients were thoroughly evaluated clinically and subjected to Plain X-ray abdomen with Ultrasonography of abdomen. Acute Abdomen was most common in age group between 20-40 years with male predominance. Acute appendicitis was the most common cause of surgical condition, followed by Peritonitis and then Intestinal Obstruction. The diagnostic accuracy rates in male and female patients were 93% and 80% respectively. Ultrasonography had highest sensitivity rate (97.8%) and plain Xray abdomen had highest specificity rate (88.4%). CONCLUSION: Each of these diagnosing methods in acute abdomen are complementary to each other. With efficient clinical acumen and using ultrasonography and X-ray abdomen as basic diagnostic investigations, one can do early diagnosis with 97% to 99% accuracy and thus can avoid unnecessary operations.