title: Two similar cases of elderly women with moderate abdominal pain and pneumoperitoneum of unknown origin: a surgeon's successful conservative management.
abstract: Patients presenting with abdominal pain and pneumoperitoneum in radiological examination usually require emergency explorative laparoscopy or laparotomy. Pneumoperitoneum mostly associates with gastrointestinal perforation. There are very few cases where surgery can be avoided. We present 2 cases of pneumoperitoneum with unknown origin and successful conservative treatment. Both patients were elderly women presenting to our emergency unit, with moderate abdominal pain. There was neither medical intervention nor trauma in their medical history. Physical examination revealed mild abdominal tenderness, but no clinical sign of peritonitis. Cardiopulmonary examination remained unremarkable. Blood studies showed only slight abnormalities, in particular, inflammation parameters were not significantly increased. Finally, obtained CTs showed free abdominal gas of unknown origin in both cases. We performed conservative management with nil per os, nasogastric tube, total parenteral nutrition and prophylactic antibiotics. After 2 weeks, both were discharged home.
authors.affiliation: Department of Visceral Surgery, St Claraspital Basel, Basel, Schweiz, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Fabrizio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vinzens
authors.affiliation: Department of Visceral Surgery, St Claraspital Basel, Basel, Schweiz, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Valentin
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Zumstein
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, St Claraspital Basel, Basel, Schweiz, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bieg
authors.affiliation: Department of Visceral Surgery, St Claraspital Basel, Basel, Schweiz, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ackermann
mesh_terms: D000005:Abdomen / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D015746:Abdominal Pain / Q000209:etiology*; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000072700:Conservative Treatment; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011027:Pneumoperitoneum / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*; D011860:Radiography, Abdominal