Acute abdomen in pregnancy

Abstract

One of the most anxiety-provoking patients to deal with is the pregnant patient with acute abdominal pain. To deal with the complexities that go along with diagnosing an acute abdomen in a pregnant patient, one needs to understand not only the differential diagnosis but also the physiologic changes of pregnancy that will affect the evaluation and diagnosis. The group was 26 women between 19 and 39 weeks of pregnancy with acute appendicitis. Magnetic resonance imaging is a safe modality to use providing diagnostic information on the mother with little risk to the fetus at any stage of pregnancy. Although laparoscopic cholecystectomy is reported to be the most common laparoscopic procedure in pregnancy, pregnancy itself increase the risk of acute cholecystitis. A 57% symptom recurrence during pregnancy and a 23% complication rate of acute cholecystitis and gallstone pancreatitis are reported. Pancreatitis is an unusual, but potentially devastating, complication of pregnancy that may present with acute abdominal pain.