Overview
Introduction
Acute abdominal pain is a threat assessment problem before it is a diagnostic label problem.
Acute abdominal pain is a threat-assessment problem before it is a diagnostic-label problem. The immediate question is whether the patient has shock, peritonitis, bowel ischemia, uncontrolled sepsis, hemorrhage, or a pregnancy-related emergency that needs action before the exact cause is known. A patient with pancreatitis can be critically ill while receiving medical treatment, whereas a patient with a small perforation may require urgent source control even before imaging identifies its location. Use an iterative loop: stabilize, examine, investigate the most dangerous possibilities, treat time-sensitive threats, and repeat the assessment. Analgesia should be provided during this process; it does not make the abdominal examination unreliable.