[Acute abdomen from the surgical perspective]

The acute abdomen is a call for prompt diagnosis and a decision for surgical or conservative therapeutic measures. The classification into clinical severity and surgical categories facilitates differentiation of the cases and determines the time frame in which the further diagnosis and treatment must proceed. The emergency doctor called in to a nonhospital setting decides whether hospital admission is necessary and which pain therapy is to be immediately initiated. According to more recent studies, the latter does not cause a delay in the ability to make a diagnosis. Laparoscopy as a diagnostic emergency intervention leads to surgical treatment in 62% of the cases.