Cope's Early Diagnosis Of The Acute Abdomen

by Cope, Zachary; Silen, William

• ISBN13: 9780195175455
• ISBN10: 019517545X
• Edition: 21st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-03-17
• 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 ofthese 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 ofCope'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, eachgeneration 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 butsignificant 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 arandomized 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	(10)
3. Method of diagnosis: the examination of the patient,	29	(13)
4. Method of diagnosis: the grouping of symptoms and signs,	42	(12)
5. Laboratory and radiological tests,	54	(13)
6. Appendicitis,	67	(17)
7. The differential diagnosis of appendicitis,	84	(22)
8. Perforation of a gastric or duodenal ulcer,	106	(15)
9. Acute pancreatitis,	121	(9)
10. Cholecystitis and other causes of acute pain in the right upper quadrant of the abdomen,	130	(10)
11. Acute abdominal lesions arising in the left hypochondrium,	140	(4)
12. The colics,	144	(8)
13. Acute intestinal obstruction,	152	(25)
14. Intussusception and other causes of obstruction,	177	(13)
15. The early diagnosis of strangulated and obstructed hernias,	190	(7)
16. Acute abdominal symptoms due to vascular lesions,	197	(11)
17. Acute abdominal symptoms in women,	208	(9)
18. Early ectopic gestation,	217	(11)
19. Acute abdominal disease with genitourinary symptoms,	228	(5)
20. The diagnosis of acute peritonitis,	233	(9)
21. The early diagnosis of abdominal injuries,	242	(11)
22. The postoperative abdomen,	253	(9)
23. The acute abdomen in the tropics,	262	(9)
24. Diseases that may simulate the acute abdomen,	271	(12)
25. Acute abdominal pain in the immunocompromised patient,	283	(4)
26. Abdominal catastrophes when sensation is impaired,	287	(2)
Index,	289