Cope's Early Diagnosis of the Acute Abdomen

by Cope, Zachary; Silen, William

• ISBN13: 9780195097580
• ISBN10: 0195097580
• Edition: 19th
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1996-02-29
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This famous text is much beloved by medical students and physicians-in-training throughout the English-speaking world, as its many editions indicate. Despite its relatively narrow focus, it is chock full of the pearls of clinical wisdom that students and practitioners treasure, and many of these lessons apply to medicine in general. The book was well characterized by a reviewer of an earlier edition for The New England Journal of Medicine: "If only one book about surgery could be made available to physicians from all specialties, it should probably be Silen's recent revision of Cope's Early Diagnosis of the Acute Abdomen. Since the book first appeared more than 30 years ago, it has remained the classic treatise on the initial approach to abdominal pain." Because acute, severe abdominal pain is still a common problem whose misdiagnosis can result in quick death, each generation of beginning physicians is faced with the urgency of learning to make a diagnosis in this high anxiety situation and they appreciate the wise, humane, precisely detailed guidance offered by Cope and Silen. For the 21st Edition, Dr. Silen has again updated the text in a respectful but significant way. He has strengthened its emphasis on pitfalls in the interpretation of CT and ultrasound scans, on misadventures caused by over-reliance on blood tests and radiographs, and on careful history-taking to avoid the costs of inappropriate lab tests. He has also reviewed the data from a randomized clinical trial indicating that patients should receive adequate analgesia while awaiting a definitive diagnosis, a dictum that is contrary to traditional teaching.

Table of Contents

1. The principles of diagnosis in acute abdominal disease	3	(16)
2. Method of diagnosis: the history	19	(11)
3. Method of diagnosis: the examination of the patient	30	(14)
4. Method of diagnosis: the grouping of symptoms and signs	44	(13)
5. Laboratory and radiological tests	57	(13)
6. Appendicitis	70	(18)
7. The differential diagnosis of appendicitis	88	(23)
8. Perforation of a gastric or duodenal ulcer	111	(15)
9. Acute pancreatitis	126	(9)
10. Cholecystitis and other causes of acute pain in the right upper quadrant of the abdomen	135	(11)
11. Acute abdominal lesions arising in the left hypochondrium	146	(4)
12. The colics	150	(9)
13. Acute intestinal obstruction	159	(26)
14. Intussusception and other causes of obstruction	185	(13)
15. The early diagnosis of strangulated and obstructed hernias	198	(8)
16. Acute abdominal symptoms due to vascular lesions	206	(12)
17. Acute abdominal symptoms in women	218	(10)
18. Early ectopic gestation	228	(12)
19. Acute abdominal disease with genitourinary symptoms	240	(5)
20. The diagnosis of acute peritonitis	245	(9)
21. The early diagnosis of abdominal injuries	254	(11)
22. The postoperative abdomen	265	(10)
23. The acute abdomen in the tropics	275	(10)
24. Diseases that may simulate the acute abdomen	285	(12)
25. Acute abdominal pain in the immunocompromised patient	297	(4)
26. Abdominal catastrophes when sensation is impaired	301	(4)
Index	305