Sammendrag
Background
Patients presenting with acute abdominal pain is a diagnostic challenge for the primary care physician. Although a large proportion of the illnesses are innocuous and self limiting, the possibility of encountering one of the infrequent and lethal disorders is always present. Not having sophisticated diagnostic equipment at hand in general practice makes strict demands on the doctor s judgement and clinical abilities.
Objective
We wanted to make a survey of conditions presenting as acute abdominal pain in general practice.
Material and Methods
Registration charts for acute abdominal pain were handed out to fifth year medical students from the University of Oslo having General Practice training. They reported patients receiving medical attention for acute abdominal pain, filling in information concerning pain duration, other symptoms, findings, tests, tentative diagnosis, further management and final diagnosis.
Results and Interpretation
134 patients were reported with a median age of 33, 5 years and female majority. Pain was most frequently located to the epigastrium. Tenderness to palpation was the most frequent finding. An average of 1, 5 laboratory tests was performed per patient. 26 % of the patients were admitted to hospital and 16 % were referred to outpatient testing or evaluation. Pain duration equal or less than 24 hours predicted acute admission. Unspecific conditions (irritable bowel syndrome, dyspepsia, non-specific abdominal pain), gynaecologic conditions and suspected appendicitis constitute the majority of the tentative and final diagnoses, around 38 % of the material, with several other ailments appearing infrequent.
In this study we have got an outline of the field of interest. Further studies are needed as there are few studies published in the specific field of acute abdominal pain presenting in general practice.