The single most common diagnosis of abdominal pain in the ER is “unspecified abdominal pain”. We see patients all the time with abdominal pain and can’t come up with a specific diagnosis. I don’t know what labs they ran but probably a CBC, Chem panel, LFTs, Lipase and Urinalysis and an abdominal series xray. If they did those the only additional test I could think of to add would be an abdominal CT. This test is NOT benign. There’s a high radiation dose and IV contrast that affects the kidneys. It takes about 3 hours to do.
People the job of the ER is to identify those in immediate risk, not diagnose everything. We can’t. They didn’t just kick her out, they offered pain relief and follow up with a gastroenterologist. Every set of discharge instructions includes “come back if you feel your symptoms are worse”. Remember this person said the problem had been ongoing for weeks, that makes it less likely to be an acute process.
To all those here who are tossing out diagnosis without getting a history, doing an exam, seeing vital signs, lab results, effects of medication etc etc etc, go try and practice medicine in an ER and see how simple it is.
I have been told multiple times by doctors that my inability to urinate following iodine contrast is not from the contrast at all. They all tell me that in the absence of kidney disease there should be no issue with it.
Yipes! What a scolding. I think you’ve been in the ER too long.
Exactly. Great post.