ABSTRACT
Acute abdomen without indications for laparotomy. How to avoid the risk of a surgical catastrophe?
Acute abdomen is defined as sudden, severe abdominal pain associated with muscle defense that reduces pain. It is estimated that about 50% of patients requiring a surgical consultation report these symptoms, and about 1/3 of them is found eligible for an urgent surgical intervention. However, establishing a correct diagnosis is often a challenging task as in certain cases both the symptoms reported by the patient as well as physical examination results can be difficult to interpret, and additional studies prove unhelpful in arriving at the accurate identification of the patient’s status.
This article discusses selected medical cases in which a delayed or unnecessary surgical intervention can lead to disastrous outcomes.
Piśmiennictwo
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