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Timely and accurate ED diagnosis of elderly patients with abdominal pain can be particularly challenging. These authors, from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center in Toledo, report on their experience with a longitudinal case series of 380 such patients. Follow-up information was available for almost all the patients (98.6%).
Half of the patients were admitted, and 22% required surgery or other inpatient procedures. Ultimate diagnoses included infection (19%), mechanical-obstructive disorders (16%), malignancy (7%), biliary tract disease (6%), and cardiac disease (4%); 5% of patients had perforated viscus, abdominal aortic aneurysms, ischemic bowel, or arteriovenous malformations. Advanced age,…