title: Acute vascular abdomen. General outlook and algorithms.
abstract: Acute vascular abdomen is a severe and life-threatening pathology due to arterial degeneration, leading to hemorrhage or arterial occlusion leading to ischemia. Differential diagnosis of patients with severe abdominal pain and/or shock include several vascular and traumatic diseases, the most common being rupture of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), or less frequently rupture of visceral artery aneurysm. Also acute aortic dissection, iatrogenic injury and acute mesenteric ischemia may lead to acute vascular abdomen. Clinical evaluation of the haemodynamic status of the patient may be very difficult, and may require airway maintenance and ventilation with a rapid treatment of hemorrhagic shock. In the stable patient with an uncertain diagnosis, CT scan, NMR and selective angiography may be helpful in diagnosis before vascular repair. On the contrary, the unstable patient, after hemodynamic resuscitation, must be operated on expeditiously. We present our vascular algorithms, to assess timing of diagnosis and treatment of this severe acute disease.
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Chirurgia Generale e Cardiovascolare, Università degli Studi, Milano.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Miani
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Boneschi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: La Penna
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Erba
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: De Monti
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Giordanengo
mesh_terms: D000006:Abdomen, Acute; D000465:Algorithms; D017544:Aortic Aneurysm, Abdominal / Q000150:complications* / Q000601:surgery; D001019:Aortic Rupture / Q000209:etiology* / Q000601:surgery; D004630:Emergencies; D006439:Hemodynamics; D006801:Humans; D008641:Mesenteric Vascular Occlusion / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery; D012771:Shock, Hemorrhagic / Q000209:etiology