Clinical profile of non-traumatic acute abdominal pain presenting to an adult emergency department.
BACKGROUND
Abdominal pain is one of the most common reasons for presenting to the emergency depatment (ED) and the etiology is varied.


METHODS
This prospective observational study was conducted in a large ED of a tertiary care center in India. All patients older than 15 years and presenting with non-traumatic abdominal pain to the ED from May 2012 to October 2012 were recruited and the demographic characteristics, diagnosis and outcome were analyzed.


RESULTS
The study cohort included 264 patients over a 6 month period. More than half (55.6%) were aged between 15 and 40 years. There was a male predominance (56.8%). Majority of the patients (76.9%) presented with abdominal pain of less than 72 hour duration. The pain was sudden in onset in 54.9% of patients. Dull type was the most common character of pain (36%) followed by colicky type (22.3%). The most common site of pain was the lower abdomen (45.8%). Upper abdominal pain was seen in 26.9% and the pain was generalized in 27.3% of patients. The common causes were uretericcolic (16.3%), urinary tract infection (12.5%), acute pancreatitis (11%), acute appendicitis (10.6%) and acute gastritis (8%). More than half (51.9%) discharged from ED and 37% of cases were managed by the emergency physicians. Surgical intervention was required in 25.8% of patients. The mortality rate was 2.3%.


CONCLUSIONS
Abdominal pain is a common ED symptom and clinicians must consider multiple diagnoses, especially those that require immediate intervention to limit morbidity and mortality.
Department of Emergency, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India.
Lakshay
L
Chanana
Department of Emergency, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India.
Moses A K
MA
Jegaraj
Department of Emergency, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India.
Kimmin
K
Kalyaniwala
Department of Emergency, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India.
Bijesh
B
Yadav
Department of Emergency, Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India.
Kundavaram
K
Abilash
Acute abdominal pain; emergency department; non-traumatic causes of abdominal pain