Ege Journal of Medicine

Abstract

As a result of rapidly aging of the world's population, the number of patients admits with complaint of acute abdominal pain to the emergency deparments in the geriatric age group is increasing. Changing physiology, comorbid disorders, barriers to communication and polypharmacy makes it difficult to make diagnosis in elderly patients with acute abdomen. Despite these difficulties, many patients organ-specific diagnosis was made in the emergency department. Geriatric patients with abdominal pain are likely to have an underlying surgical pathology. For this reason, diagnostic evaluation tests and consultation requests should be accelarated for geriatric patients with complaint of abdominal pain, compared to other age groups, patients with diagnostic difficulities should have a priority for observation or admission to the hospital.