THE ROLE OF ULTRASONOGRAPHY IN PATIENTS REFERRING TO THE EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT WITH ACUTE ABDOMINAL PAIN

Background and Aim : Acute abdominal pain is a common clinical problem in emergency andnon-emergency cases accounting for 5 to 10% of all referrals to the emergency department. Studieshave indicated that these widely differentiated diagnoses are common to these complaints.Considering the high prevalence of this complaint in the patients and the wide range of itsdifferential diagnosis, this review study was designed and evaluated aiming at investigating thecauses of acute abdominal pain with a focus on assessing the position of ultrasound as a diagnostictool in the emergency department.Methods : This article was conducted as a narrative review of 106 articles from 2005 through2019. By comparing them, a comprehensive review of ultrasonographic status was conducted inpatients with acute abdominal pain referring to the emergency department.Results : In this review study, we attempted to use the articles of the clinical approach, the requiredlaboratory tests, the disadvantages and advantages of each imaging technique, the differentia ldiagnosis for acute abdominal pain according to the location of the pain, and the position ofultrasound as a diagnostic aid tool. Eventually, the proposed protrusion will be considered indealing with a patient with acute abdominal pain.Conclusion : Regarding the wide range of causes providing multiple differential diagnosis, as wellas the limited time of the health team in the emergency department for diagnostic and therapeuticmeasures, particularly in time-sensitive clinical conditions, ultrasound offered by emergency medicine specialists as a diagnostic aid is considered to improve the overall diagnosis andtreatment of patients, thereby reducing complications.