[Acute abdomen in anticoagulated patients. Its assessment and the surgical indications]

Bleeding complications associated with anticoagulant drugs can development abdominal pain simulating acute surgical conditions of abdomen. We report six cases of intraabdominal spontaneous haemorrhage presenting as an acute abdomen in patients on anticoagulant therapy: two rectus sheath hematomas, a abdominal wall hematoma, a spontaneous hemoperitoneum, a retroperitoneal hematoma and an intramural hematoma of the small bowel. The article conclude that computed tomography examination provided useful information in this complications because can demonstrate the size and location of the mass and its relation to normal intra-abdominal structures. Finally, authors expose the surgical indications of the different bleeding syndromes in this patients.