title: Children with abdominal pain: evaluation in the pediatric emergency department.
abstract: In a retrospective study of children with abdominal pain in a pediatric emergency department, 371 children were identified during four seasonally diverse months. Half of the children were two to six years old, 32% were seven to 11 years old, and 19% were 12 to 16 years old. Forty-eight different diagnoses were made, but 10 diagnoses were given to 83% of the patients. We found an increased frequency of respiratory illnesses (12%) as compared to other studies. Appendicitis was the only surgical problem that occurred in more than one percent of the children. The diagnoses were classified as medical (64.4%), surgical (6.5%), and nonspecific (29.1%). chi 2 and multinomial logit analysis revealed that guarding and abdominal tenderness were the two symptoms which were most strongly associated with a surgical diagnosis. The goal of this work is to assist the busy emergency clinician with the difficult task of making expeditious and accurate diagnoses for children with abdominal pain.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Northwestern University, Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago.
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Reynolds
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Jaffe
mesh_terms: D015746:Abdominal Pain / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001064:Appendicitis / Q000175:diagnosis; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003422:Critical Care; D003955:Diagnostic Tests, Routine; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005759:Gastroenteritis / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010361:Patients; D012120:Respiration Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies