ROLE OF MULTI-DETECTOR COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY IN EVALUATION OF ABDOMINAL ONCOLOGIC EMERGENCIES

Abstract

Any acute, potentially life-threatening event in an oncologic patient that develops secondary to direct or indirect effects of the patient’s cancer or related to its treatment is defined as an oncologic emergency. Most oncologic emergencies can be classified as: metabolic, hematologic, structural, or treatment related. Structural emergencies require imaging studies for diagnosis as they demonstrate characteristic imaging findings which contribute to making an accurate diagnosis and prompt management. So, structural abdominal emergencies are the concern of this study. Abdominal oncologic emergencies are broadly classified into complications occurring within the tumor and complications occurring in other viscera and vasculature due to tumor growth and invasion. This study was carried out on 25 oncologic patients presented with acute abdomen referred to the Radio-diagnosis Department for multi-detector computed tomography evaluation. Among the examined patients, 7 patients (28%) had intra-tumoral rupture, 5 patients (20%) had infection and inflammation., 12 patients (48%) had GIT complications, 5 patients (20%) had hepato-biliary complications, 6 patients (24%) had vascular complications and 4 patients (16%) had renal/urinary complications (more than one complication occurred in the same patient). On conclusion, contrast enhanced computed tomography is the modality of choice for evaluation of abdominal oncologic emergencies as it is the most widely available, easily accessible and comprehensive imaging technique used in the emergency setting.