Evaluation of Applications For The Diagnosis, Treatment And Nursing Care of Patients Followed in the Children's Emergency Department with the Prediagnosis of Acute Abdomen

Abstract

Abstract Objective: The aim of our study was to investigate the pre-diagnosis, treatment and nursing care practices of patients followed up in the pediatric emergency department with a prediagnosis of acute abdomen. Materials and Methods: The retrospective study was carried out at Celal Bayar University Hafsa Sultan Hospital. Patients under the age of 18 who were followed up in the Pediatric Emergency Service with a prediagnosis of acute abdomen were included in the study. The data of the research were evaluated by collecting the information about the treatment processes of the patients with the Data Collection Form prepared by the researchers over the patient follow-up files and the hospital information management system. Results: A total of 351 children (Female: 156/Male: 195) were included in our study. The mean age of the children was 8.53 ± 5.10 years. While 32.2% of the patients were diagnosed surgically, the most common surgical intervention was appendectomy with 18.2%. While vital follow-up was performed more than once in 25.9% of the patients, the frequency of vital follow-up was significantly higher in children with fever signs (p=0.001). Hydration was applied to 70.4% of the patients, ultrasonography or computed tomography was requested from 92.6% of the patients. The effect of requesting radiological examination on the observation time of the patients in the emergency room was found to be insignificant (p=0.60), and the rate of surgical diagnosis of the patients who requested ultrasonography was found to be significantly higher (p=0.21). Conclusion: Non-surgical causes are more common in patients followed up for acute abdominal pain in emergency observation. Ultrasonography supports the diagnosis in patients requiring surgical intervention. During the observation period, non-pharmacological methods are less preferred for the symptoms of the patients. Keywords: #acute abdomen #child emergency #diagnosis