title: My patient has abdominal and flank pain: Identifying renal causes.
abstract: Acute flank and abdominal pain are common presenting complaints in the emergency department. With increasing access to point-of-care ultrasound (PoCUS), emergency physicians have an added tool to help identify renal problems as a cause of a patient's pain. PoCUS for hydronephrosis has a sensitivity of 72-83.3% and a varying specificity, similar to radiology-performed ultrasonography. In addition to assessment for hydronephrosis, PoCUS can help emergency physicians to exclude other serious causes of flank and abdominal pain such as the presence of an abdominal aortic aneurysm, or free fluid in the intraperitoneal space, which could represent hemorrhage. Use of PoCUS for the assessment of flank pain has resulted in more rapid diagnosis, decreased use of computed tomography, and shorter emergency department length of stay.
authors.affiliation: Dalhousie University-Emergency Medicine, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cox
authors.affiliation: Dalhousie University-Emergency Medicine, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
authors.forename: Scott
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: MacDonald
authors.affiliation: Dalhousie University-Emergency Medicine, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
authors.forename: Ryan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Henneberry
authors.affiliation: Dalhousie University-Emergency Medicine, Saint John Regional Hospital, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.
authors.forename: Paul R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Atkinson
keywords: Point of care ultrasound; abdominal pain; renal; ureteric