Resumo

PARRA, Giovanna S et al. Dolor abdominal agudo en el anciano en el Hospital de Caldas. Rev Col Gastroenterol [online]. 2003, vol.18, n.3, pp.146-152. ISSN 0120-9957.

Objectives: to determine the causal illnesses of acute abdominal pain, in patients older than 65 years old that consult to the emergency service with this symptom, their clinical presentation, correlation between initial and definitive diagnosis, delay in diagnosis, hospital stay and morbilility and associate mortality. Design: descriptive study of incident cases during 12 months (March of 2000 to February of 2001), of the ancient patients that consulted to the emergency service and were hospitalized because of none traumatic acute abdominal pain. Scenario: Hospital of Caldas, third level of attention, Manizales, Colombia. Results: there were 209 patients, 129 female and 80 male, with an average age of 75 years. As main causes of illness were biliary tract diseases (22.5%), peptic disease (20.6%) and cardiovascular diseases (11%). The associate symptoms were none especific (predominantly anorexia, nauseas and vomit), only presenting physical signs in 66% of the cases; 66 patients (31.6%) of them required surgical tratment. There was correlation between the initial and the definitive diagnsosis in 49.5%. Complications presented in 48.8% of the cases, with 28 patients as the global mortality (13.4%), predominantly in the group submitted to surgical treatment (18 cases), and concomitant diseases in 84% of the patients. The average hospital stay was of 7.8 days. Conclusions: diagnosis of the acute abdominal pain in ancient patients is difficult because of the relative lack of symptoms and physical signs. Is evident the wide prevalence of the biliary tract disease and the peptic disease. In the patients submitted to surgical treatment there is a tendency to present higher complication and mortality rate. Complications are bad tolerated by the older patients, emphasizing the importance of their prediction and prevention.

Palavras-chave : acute abdominal pain; etiology; clinical presentation; complications; ancient patients.

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