Patients and Methods: This study was performed retrospectivelly by searching files of patients older than 65 years admitted to ED of Firat University Faculty of Medicine due to abdominal pain between January-December 2003.
Results: The study was performed with 106 patients. Male/female ratio is 0.82. In study period 13.3% of whole ED visits and 13.5% of ED visits due to abdominal pain were made by patients older than 65 years. Mean admission time after start of pain was 97.10±160.8 hours. The most common accompanying symptoms were nausea and vomiting. Acute cholecystitis and/or cholelithiasis detected in 24 ED patients (22.6%) were the most common pathology. 63.2% of the patients were hospitalized and 47.8% of these were operated. Mortality rate was 11.9%.
Conclusion: Incidence of surgical causes in these patients is rather high. Because atypical presentation is frequent; care must be taken to extensive history, careful physical examination and effective use of imaging methods and early general surgery consultation must be considered.
Keywords : Emergency department, Geriatric patients, Abdominal pain