Radiology for Practitioners Emergency Abdominal Radiology: the Acute Abdomen

Based on studies of approximately 30,000 patients, de Dombal [2] noted that in one third of these cases, cause was never established hence so-called unspecified abdominal pain. In those patients in whom a diagnosis became evident, 28% had appendicitis, 9.7% acute cholocystitis, 4.1% small bowel obstruction, 4% acute gynecologic disease, 2.9% acute pancreatitis, 2.9% renal colic, 2.5% perforated peptic ulcer, 1.5% cancer, and 1.5% diverticulitis. Of course, several other causes not mentioned in this section may be responsible for acute abdominal pain, some of which will be discussed in this article. Grossly, acute abdominal conditions can be divided into traumatic and non traumatic conditions, in adults and elderly and in pediatric patients with some inevitable overlap.