Abdominal wall tenderness: A useful sign in chronic abdominal pain
- 1 February 1991
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in British Journal of Surgery
- Vol. 78 (2), 223-225
- https://doi.org/10.1002/bjs.1800780231
Abstract
The outcome in 72 patients with obscure abdominal pain and a positive Carnett's (abdominal wall tenderness) test, seen in one firm's surgical outpatient clinic between 1975 and 1983, was sought by a combination of hospital note retrieval and general practitioner questionnaire. Full follow-up data to date or death were available for 58 (81 per cent) patients and partial follow-up for 14 patients. The study showed that the patients generated a good deal of investigation and a number of surgical procedures but that seldom were their symptoms attributable to serious pathology. Familiarity with the test, taken in the context of a proper history and examination, has been found helpful in assessing such patients and saves the inconvenience, expense and occasional hazard of investigation, and even surgery.Keywords
This publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit:
- Recognition and Treatment of Abdominal Wall PainJournal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1989
- Rectus nerve entrapment causing abdominal painBritish Journal of Surgery, 1988
- ABDOMINAL-WALL TENDERNESS: A USEFUL SIGN IN THE ACUTE ABDOMENThe Lancet, 1977