Abdominal pain in children presenting to emergency room: a puzzle - difficult to solve
Location
Auditorium Pond Side
Start Date
26-2-2014 10:30 AM
Abstract
Objective: To determine the prevalence, associated symptoms and clinical outcome of children with acute abdominal pain presenting to emergency department of tertiary care hospital.
Material and Methods: This is the retrospective chart review of all patients presenting with abdominal pain in the Emergency Department of The Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi. The duration of study was from Jan 2011- Dec 2011. Data collection sheet includes patient’s demographic information, day and time of presentation, triage category, reason for visit, clinical presentation, management, and length of stay, ED disposition. Data will be entered and analyzed using SPSS version 16.0. Descriptive statistics were used to describe patient’s demographics. Chi-square (χ2) test was used as test of significance to compare differences between groups for categorical data and T test for continuous data.
Results: Total pediatric visits in 2011 were 11800, among them 2290 (19.4%) patients presented to ED with the complaint of abdominal pain. Males were 51.6% and Female were 48.3%). M:F ratio is 1.06. Almost 54 .6% patients were discharged from ED while the other 45.4% patients got admitted. Among the total of 2290, 1695 (74%) had acute gastro enteritis, 463(77.42%) patients had non- specific abdominal pain, 112(18.72%) had urinary tract infection and 23(3.84%) had other causes as post-surgical pain, upper respiratory tract infection and enteric fever.
Conclusion: Abdominal pain is a common reason for visiting ED. Nonspecific abdominal pain is an important cause in children.
Keywords: Abdominal Pain, Emergency, Karachi, Pakistan
Abdominal pain in children presenting to emergency room: a puzzle - difficult to solve
Auditorium Pond Side
Objective: To determine the prevalence, associated symptoms and clinical outcome of children with acute abdominal pain presenting to emergency department of tertiary care hospital.
Material and Methods: This is the retrospective chart review of all patients presenting with abdominal pain in the Emergency Department of The Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi. The duration of study was from Jan 2011- Dec 2011. Data collection sheet includes patient’s demographic information, day and time of presentation, triage category, reason for visit, clinical presentation, management, and length of stay, ED disposition. Data will be entered and analyzed using SPSS version 16.0. Descriptive statistics were used to describe patient’s demographics. Chi-square (χ2) test was used as test of significance to compare differences between groups for categorical data and T test for continuous data.
Results: Total pediatric visits in 2011 were 11800, among them 2290 (19.4%) patients presented to ED with the complaint of abdominal pain. Males were 51.6% and Female were 48.3%). M:F ratio is 1.06. Almost 54 .6% patients were discharged from ED while the other 45.4% patients got admitted. Among the total of 2290, 1695 (74%) had acute gastro enteritis, 463(77.42%) patients had non- specific abdominal pain, 112(18.72%) had urinary tract infection and 23(3.84%) had other causes as post-surgical pain, upper respiratory tract infection and enteric fever.
Conclusion: Abdominal pain is a common reason for visiting ED. Nonspecific abdominal pain is an important cause in children.
Keywords: Abdominal Pain, Emergency, Karachi, Pakistan