Emergency ultrasound in the evaluation of acute-onset abdominal pain in children

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Abstract
The diagnostic efficacy of abdominal ultrasound obtained within 72 hours of admission in children with undiagnosed, acute-onset adominal pain was studied. In our 54 patients, sonogram supported the clinical diagnosis in 22 patients (40.7%), established a previously unsuspected diagnosis in nine (16.6%), and was normal in 23/54 (42.6%). Twenty-one of the patients with a normal study recovered uneventfully. Two patients had a false negative study (sensitivity of 91%) and in three, the study was falsely positive (specificity 90.3%). Thus, our data suggest that emergency abdominal ultrasound may be of significant diagnostic value in the evaluation of children with acute-onset abdominal pain.

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