Abstract
The first step in the management of urologic emergencies is to recognize the clinical significance. One must distinguish among genuinely life-threatening problems such as urosepsis or kidney rupture, urgent problems such as testicular torsion, and merely troublesome conditions such as cystitis in a healthy young woman. This may be more easily said than done. The practitioner is challenged both by the broad spectrum of urologic emergencies and by the even more numerous possible diagnoses mimicking urologic symptoms. For example, a patient with a long history of renal colic may present with acute flank pain, tachycardia, tachypnea, and hypotension. If renal ultrasound is normal (lack of upper tract dilatation) and urinalysis reveals no microhematuria, abdominal ultrasonography and/or computed tomography (CT), as indicated in a diagnostic algorithm, will lead to the correct diagnosis of ruptured abdominal aneurysm.
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Buse, S., Santucci, R., Hohenfellner, M. (2007). The Clinical Approach to the Acutely Ill Patient. In: Hohenfellner, M., Santucci, R.A. (eds) Emergencies in Urology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-48605-3_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-48605-3_2
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