Abdominal Pain Management and Point-of-care Ultrasound in the Emergency Department

Sakarya University207 enrolled

Overview

Background: Abdominal pain is one of the most common reasons for admission to the emergency department (ED). This study aimed to investigate the effect of point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) performed during the initial evaluation phase of patients who presented to the ED with abdominal pain on diagnostic processes, length of stay (LOS) in ED, and hospitalization and healthcare costs. Methodology: This prospective, randomized, controlled, parallel group study was conducted with patients who presented to the Sakarya Education Research Hospital ED with abdominal pain from October 2019 to March 2020. Patients were divided randomly into two groups: control group where standard diagnostic strategies were applied and the POCUS group where POCUS was performed together with standard diagnostic strategies. All data were analyzed using IBM SPSS 21.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

DIAGNOSTIC

Masking

DOUBLE

Enrollment

207

Conditions

Abdominal Pain

Interventions

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 18 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * age \>18 years * Patients who presented to the ED with abdominal pain * Nontraumatic patients Exclusion Criteria: * permanent mental disability, * age \<18 years, * abdominal trauma within the last 24 hours, * pregnancy, morbid obesity, repeated admissions, * referral from an external center to the ED, * missing patient information.

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

to measure the effect of POCUS on the Length of stay in emergency department

Time frame: 6 months

Secondary Outcomes

to measure the effect of POCUS on the average cost of patients, the rate of change in the preliminary diagnosis of the physician, and hospitalization and discharge rate

Time frame: 1 months after discharge or hospitalisation