Abstract:
Abstract
Background: Abdominal pain is common in children that can manifest as acute or chronic. In some cases, are
requires immediate management. The most difficult challenge is to make diagnosis to identify the cause.
Objective: This study is aimed to demonstrate the evidence of the use of abdominal ultrasonography (AUS) to
determine the cause of pain in relation to surgical decision.
Methods: Patients with acute abdominal pain were referred for AUS. Prospective cross- sectional method was
done in 268 children aged 5 to 15 years old, in which 116 of them are male. Patients who did not require
surgery and outpatients were asked to make a response whether the improvement during and after the
treatment. Patient who were required surgical, will be confirmed by histopathology.
Results: No abnormalities (53.73%). The abnormal findings were: enterocolitis (13.43%), mesenteric adenitis
(12.68%), constipation (6.72%), appendicitis (6.34%), cystitis (5.97%), adrenal tumor (0.07%) and
intussusception (0.04%). Findings shows, the use of AUS to deter mine the cause were able to reduce surgical
decision from 27.98% to 7.46%. Thus, ultrasonography changed the management plan in 20.52%of patients.
Conclusion: The AUS is useful for evaluation abdominal pain in children. An accurate diagnosis is important to
prevent unnecessary surgery.
Key words: Abdominal Ultrasound, Acute Abdominal Pain, Children
