Decision Making Process in Acute Abdominal Pain
Acute appendicitis is one of the most common causes of acute lower abdominal pain. However, there are other diseases that can cause pain and mimic acute appendicitis. Some of these conditions are treated surgically; however, some of them should be treated conservatively. Therefore, the treatment of diseases associated with a number of decisions made by doctors and patients. The decision making is divided into three levels. At the first level, the patient and his family are to decide that patient should go to visit physician. At the second level is a physician in primary health care, who decides whether a patient deserves conservative or operative treatment. If he think that it is necessary to forward patient to the hospital, the other specialist: surgeons, urologists and gastroenterologists are involved in the decision making process. At the third level are decisions about the future treatment of the patient. The patient can be sent to home treatment, control exam could be appointed, patient cold be operated or observed. For decision making process physicians use information collected from patient’s history, physical examination of patients, laboratory tests and radiological examinations.