title: Abdominal pain of unknown etiology.
abstract: The influence of age, sex, duration of symptoms, and exploratory laparotomy on prognosis of adult patients with abdominal pain of unknown etiology was assessed in a retrospective review. Patients with incomplete diagnostic evaluation were excluded. Of the sixty-four patients studied, forty-six were female. Lack of improvement of symptoms in the follow-up period was 67% in females and 22% in males (p less than 0.05). Younger patients tended to have higher improvement rates. Of the patients whose duration of symptoms was less than fourteen days, 65% were improved and 25% were subsequently diagnosed, as compared with 14 and 9%, respectively, of those whose symptoms had been present for more than ninety days (p less than 0.05). Laparotomy did not influence rate of improvement and established a diagnosis in only one of twenty-three patients explored. It is concluded that few of these patients are likely to benefit from laparotomy, especially adult females whose symptoms have been present for more than three months.
mesh_terms: D000005:Abdomen; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007813:Laparotomy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010146:Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012737:Sex Factors; D013997:Time Factors