Acute abdominal pain and emergency laparotomy: bundles of care to improve patient outcomes

Abstract

WHAT?: A bundle of care for acute abdominal pain has two components that run in parallel-a diagnostic pathway to quickly arrive at a diagnosis and thereby provide the opportunity for source control, and a parallel pathway of resuscitation and optimization before surgery.• WHY?: Patients with a clinical suspicion of bowel obstruction, gastrointestinal perforation, and mesenteric ischaemia represent a high-risk group and demand special attention.Patients are often older, have co-morbidities, and 30-50 per cent present with systemic inflammatory response, sepsis, or septic shock.The bundle should be initiated immediately to reduce mortality and improve outcomes after surgery.

Topics & Concepts