SP3.2.1 Consultant-led Urgent Ambulatory Management of Righted-sided Lower Abdominal Pain: Prospective data collection

Abstract

Aims To study if right lower abdominal pain could be managed safely on ambulatory basis when referred from emergency department or primary healthcare as suspected acute appendicitis to surgical ambulatory unit (SAU). Methods Data collated prospectively involving 586 patients, who presented with right iliac fossa/right-sided pelvic pain from january 2019 to January 2021. Results 0ut of 586 patients, 234 (40%) were admitted and 352 (60%) managed in ambulatory settings after being reviewed by Consulant-lead surgical oncall team. Age ranged from 3 to 92 years. Male to female ratio was 3:2. Their management included clinical history/and examination, urinalysis and blood tests. 157 (44%) patients had scans, 43 (12%) had CT scans and 114 (32%) had pelvic USS the same day or the following morning/day and were reviewed by oncall-surgeons and 107 (30%) patients had repeat blood tests. 39 (11%) out of 352 paitents were admitted the following day review, of which 18 (5%) patients underwent laproscopic appendicectomy (LA) and 8 (2.2%) patients treated conservatively. 9 (1.98%) patients represented with persistent/or worsening symptoms and 5 (1.4%) patients of these had LA and 2 (0.56%) patients had pelvic collection, drained radiologically and 2 (0.56%) had wound infections treated with antibiotics. Complications rate in ambulatory patients compared to in-patients was insignificant, P-value set at 0.05% using Mann-Whitney U test. Conclusions