Chronic spondyloarthropathy mimicking abdominal disease

Chronic spondyloarthopathy is a very common disease in the elderly. Its more common symptoms are pain in the waist, sluggishness and stiffness. Sometimes, however, it presents with the symptoms of abdominal disease. In a six year period, we observed 4,172 patients with several surgical diseases. Attentive clinical and laboratory studies of these showed that 112, who presented with abdominal symptoms, in fact, had chronic spondyloarthropathy. These cases are reported here with a brief discussion of the treatment and results.