Epidemiology of acute abdominal pain: a cross-sectional study in a tertiary care hospital of Eastern India

Abstract

Background: Acute abdomen is defined as “a spectrum of surgical, medical and gynecological conditions ranging from trivial to life threatening conditions, which require hospital admission, investigations and treatment. The possible causes of acute abdomen may range from benign and psychogenic pain to life threatening aortic dissection. This study aims to find out the etiological spectrum of surgical acute pain abdomen among patients attending emergency department of a medical college of Eastern India.Methods: An institution based, cross-sectional study was conducted from January- June 2018, among patients admitted with pain abdomen in IQ City Medical College and Narayna Hospital, Durgapur, West Bengal, India. Data were collected on the day of discharge, with the help of pre-tested, semi structured Schedule.Results: Total 8688 patients were admitted through emergency during data collection period. 1236 (14.2%) of them were admitted with complains of pain abdomen. Frequency of surgical and non-surgical pain abdomen was 6.0% and 8.2% respectively. Most consistent symptom and sign were pain abdomen and abdominal tenderness respectively. Most common cause of acute abdomen was acute appendicitis. It was present in 38.9% of cases followed by gall bladder pathology, renal/ ureteric colic, perforation peritonitis, intestinal obstruction, bowel ischemia in 21.0%, 14.2%, 13.7%, 7.8%, and 4.4% of cases respectively.Conclusions: About 15.0% of all emergency hospitalization is due to acute abdominal pain and about 40.0% of all acute abdominal pain was due to surgical causes. Most common cause of surgical acute abdomen was acute appendicitis.

Laparoscopy in management of surgical causes of acute verses chronic pain abdomen in adults visiting tertiary care hospital in Telangana, India

“…17,18 Renal/ureteric stones (3/1.8%), in this study were very less compared with Thakur et al 74 (14.2%). 2 TB abdomen (1/1.2%) was less in this study when compared with Brahman et al (5%) and Rao et al (3%). 17,18 Cholecystitis (18/10.7%), diverticulitis (3/1.7%) was less and hernia (7/4.2%) was more in this study compared to study by Brahman et al, 4 (5%) and 2 (2.5%) respectively (shown in Table 6).…”

“…1 Pain abdomen accounts for about 14.2% of all emergency hospitalization and about 6% of all hospital admissions were due to surgical causes of pain abdomen. 2 Acute abdominal pain (AAP) is frequently defined as pain of less than five days duration. 3 Acute abdomen is a spectrum of surgical, medical and gynaecological conditions ranging from trivial to life threatening conditions, which require hospital admission, investigations and treatment.…”

To study the epidemiology and clinical profile of adult patients with acute abdominal pain attending tertiary care hospital

“…In this study acute cholecystitis and Renal Colic were most common causes of acute abdominal pain followed by acute appendicitis, whereas in Study by Thakur et al 14 acute appendicitis was more common followed by cholecystitis and renal colic respectively. This might again reflect heterogeneity in clinical profile across various centers.…”

The NSW Pathology Atlas of Variation: Part I—Identifying Emergency Departments With Outlying Laboratory Test–Ordering Practices

“…29 Acute abdominal pain has been identified as one of the top 5 reasons patients present to an ED in the United States, [30][31][32][33] with studies between 2007 and 2019 reporting abdominal pain in ED cohorts representing between 6.5% 34 and 11.88% 35 in the United States 30,33 and 5.76% 36 to 20% 37 internationally. [38][39][40] As a presenting complaint, abdominal pain has been described as a diagnostic challenge 34,41,42 for ED clinicians, with an array of potential causes ranging from mild to serious lifethreatening conditions 36,41,43,44 and hospital admission rates ranging between 16.5% and 36%. 36,38,44 Similarly, chest pain is frequently cited as one of the top 5 reasons for patients' presentation to the ED, 30,33,40,45 with studies between 2014 and 2019 reporting chest pain in ED cohorts representing between 1.5% and 1.82% in sub-Saharan Africa, 46,47 4.11% and 4.7% in the United States, 30,33,48 and 11% and 13% in Norway 40,45 (where EDs require general practitioner referral 45 ).…”