Abdominal Pain

Amardeep Singh, M.D.
Disclosures		The author has no relationships with commercial interests related to the content of the presentation.

The Planners of this activity have no relationships to disclose.

Amar Singh, MD, a board certified emergency physician at Chicago's Mount Sinai Hospital, discusses the common causes of abdominal pain, such as appendicitis and biliary disease; life threatening causes of abdominal pain including abdominal aortic aneurysm and intestinal obstruction; and commonly missed causes of abdominal pain.

This lecture and the post-test is worth 1.5 credit hours.

Describing the anatomy of the abdomen using illustrations of its four quadrants, Dr Singh discusses the commonest causes of abdominal pain, which accounts for up to 10% of all ED visits. Aided by clear graphic representation of a CT scan of an inflamed appendix, he describes acute appendicitis as a prime cause; other causes include biliary disease, acute pancreatitis, peptic ulcer, kidney stone, and diverticulitis ... and for each of these he provides clearcut details of presentation, symptoms and lab findings, as well as precipitating and mitigating factors.

Moving on to life threatening causes of abdominal pain, Dr Singh lists three of the major etiologies, describing their risk factors and symptoms, and noting that elderly patients presenting with these are particularly vulnerable.

The lecture details the principal pathophysiologies of abdominal pain – visceral, somatic, and referred pain … and its characteristics, including onset, frequency and quality that are useful in reaching a differential diagnosis. In discussing the history and physical, the author explains why the physical examination is often underused ... and why in women a gynecologic history is especially important. Techniques for auscultation and palpation are described and illustrated, and diagnostic studies are enumerated ... with the author stating why and how CT scans are the study of choice in abdominal pain.

The lecture concludes with a helpful discussion of commonly missed diagnoses in abdominal pain.