Clinical significance of intraabdominal pressure and abdominal perfusion pressure in patients with acute abdominal syndrome

Elevated intraabdominal pressure (IAP) has been claimed to play a role in abdominal compartment syndrome. We assessed the correlation between the values of IAP, abdominal perfusion pressure (APP) and clinical scoring systems including SIRS, MODS and APACHE II and the patients’ survival rate in patients admitted to the ICU with acute abdomen due to ileus, intestinal perforation, peritonitis and trauma. We measured IAP and APP in 50 surgical patients. In this study the IAP was measured in a non-invasive manner via urinary bladder pressure. The APP was calculated as the difference between mean arterial pressure and IAP values. A significantly higher IAP was found in the non-survivors’ group in comparison with the survivors’ group. On the other hand, the APP inversely correlated with disease severity scores including SIRS, MODS and APACHE II, whereas IAP values did not show any correlation to these clinical parameters. These findings suggest that IAP and APP may be useful tools in the clinical evaluation of patients with acute abdomen. NATAŠA KOVAČ ( ) •