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Abdominal Pain in Older Patients

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Geriatric Emergency Medicine

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Abstract

Abdominal pain is a common complaint in older patients and represents a challenge for emergency physicians. In addition to the classical causes of abdominal pain, extra-abdominal causes, e.g., acute myocardial infarction, must be excluded rapidly during the work-up in the emergency department (ED) because urgent and specific interventions may be needed. Moreover, changes in physiological processes in older patients as well as limitations of the physical examination and the presence of limited cognitive function can lead to atypical clinical presentations. Emergency physicians should be familiar with the management of abdominal pain in older patients in the ED and should be able to establish the differential diagnosis. In this chapter, the epidemiology of acute abdominal pain, the current diagnostic approach in the ED, and the specific geriatric approach will be reviewed.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Emergency Medicine, Necmettin Erbakan University Meram School of Medicine, Konya, Turkey

    Zerrin Defne Dündar MD

  2. Department of General Surgery, Hacettepe University School of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey

    A. Bulent Dogrul MD

  3. Department of Emergency Medicine, Yıldırım Beyazıt University School of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey

    Mehmet Ergin MD

  4. Division of Geriatrics, Department of Internal Medicine, Hacettepe University School of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey

    R. Tuna Dogrul MD

Authors
  1. Zerrin Defne Dündar MD
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  2. A. Bulent Dogrul MD
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  3. Mehmet Ergin MD
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  4. R. Tuna Dogrul MD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mehmet Ergin MD .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Emergency Department, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland

    Christian Nickel

  2. Department of Emergency Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Abdelouahab Bellou

  3. Department of Health Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

    Simon Conroy

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Dündar, Z.D., Dogrul, A.B., Ergin, M., Dogrul, R.T. (2018). Abdominal Pain in Older Patients. In: Nickel, C., Bellou, A., Conroy, S. (eds) Geriatric Emergency Medicine. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19318-2_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19318-2_15

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-19317-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-19318-2

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