Brief History and Physical Examination

Historic features of importance include age; time of onset of the pain; activity of the pt when the pain began; location and character of the pain; radiation to other sites; presence of nausea, vomiting, or anorexia; temporal changes; changes in bowel habits; and menstrual history. Physical examination should focus on the pt's overall appearance (writhing in pain [ureteral lithiasis] vs. still [peritonitis, perforation]), position (a pt leaning forward may have pancreatitis or gastric perforation into the lesser sac), presence of fever or hypothermia, hyperventilation, cyanosis, bowel sounds, direct or rebound abdominal tenderness, pulsating abdominal mass, abdominal bruits, ascites, rectal blood, rectal or pelvic tenderness, and evidence of coagulopathy. Useful laboratory studies include hematocrit (may be normal with acute hemorrhage or misleadingly high with dehydration), WBC with differential count, arterial blood gases, serum electrolytes, BUN, creatinine, glucose, lipase or amylase, and UA. Females of reproductive age should have a pregnancy test. Radiologic studies should include supine and upright abdominal films (left lateral decubitus view if upright unobtainable) to evaluate bowel caliber and presence of free peritoneal air, cross-table lateral film to assess aortic diameter; CT (when available) to detect evidence of bowel perforation, inflammation, solid organ infarction, retroperitoneal bleeding, abscess, or tumor. Abdominal paracentesis (or peritoneal lavage in cases of trauma) can detect evidence of bleeding or peritonitis. Abdominal ultrasound (when available) reveals evidence of abscess, cholecystitis, biliary or ureteral obstruction, or hematoma and is used to determine aortic diameter.

Diagnostic Strategies

The initial decision point is based on whether the pt is hemodynamically stable. If not, one must suspect a vascular catastrophe such as a leaking abdominal aortic aneurysm. Such pts receive limited resuscitation and move immediately to surgical exploration. If the pt is hemodynamically stable, the next decision point is whether the abdomen is rigid. Rigid abdomens are most often due to perforation or obstruction. The diagnosis can generally be made by a chest and plain abdominal radiograph.

If the abdomen is not rigid, the causes may be grouped based on whether the pain is poorly localized or well localized. In the presence of poorly localized pain, one should assess whether an aortic aneurysm is possible. If so, a CT scan can make the diagnosis; if not, early appendicitis, early obstruction, mesenteric ischemia, inflammatory bowel disease, pancreatitis, and metabolic problems are all in the differential diagnosis.

Pain localized to the epigastrium may be of cardiac origin or due to esophageal inflammation or perforation, gastritis, peptic ulcer disease, biliary colic or cholecystitis, or pancreatitis. Pain localized to the right upper quadrant includes those same entities plus pyelonephritis or nephrolithiasis, hepatic abscess, subdiaphragmatic abscess, pulmonary embolus, or pneumonia, or it may be of musculoskeletal origin. Additional considerations with left upper quadrant localization are infarcted or ruptured spleen, splenomegaly, and gastric or peptic ulcer. Right lower quadrant pain may be from appendicitis, Meckel's diverticulum, Crohn's disease, diverticulitis, mesenteric adenitis, rectus sheath hematoma, psoas abscess, ovarian abscess or torsion, ectopic pregnancy, salpingitis, familial fever syndromes, urolithiasis, or herpes zoster. Left lower quadrant pain may be due to diverticulitis, perforated neoplasm, or other entities previously mentioned.