Introduction:

Abdominal pain is a very common symptom, caused by a broad spectrum of diseases and disorders, most of which have a benign origin; however, in some situations, the cause is a serious process or life-threatening disease.

Objective:

To determine how many consultations are required for the diagnosis of acute surgical abdomen.

Material and methods:

We conducted a cohort of patients operated on with a diagnosis of acute surgical abdomen at Culiacan’s Regional Hospital, ISSSTE, in the period from September 2015 to January 2016.

Results:

The sample consisted of a total of 56 patients operated on for acute abdomen; the most frequent causes were acute appendicitis (62.5%) and biliary pathology (23.3%). In 41.1% (IC 95%: [28.1, 55.0]) of the patients, there was a change in the initial diagnosis. There were 69 valuation consultations among the 56 operated patients, who had to undergo an average of 1.3 ± .5 consultations.

Conclusions:

Up to two consultations were required for the diagnosis of acute surgical abdomen; when the number of consultations is higher, the probability of an erroneous diagnosis increases up to 12 times.

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