Evaluation of Acute Abdomen Using Multidetector Computed Tomography (MDCT)

Abstract Background: Acute abdomen is a sudden, severe abdominal pain requiring urgent diagnosis and often surgical treatment. Accurate identification is required to reduce complications and mortality. While X-rays and ultrasound aid evaluation, Multidetector CT (MDCT) is usually the modality of choice because of its speed, clarity, and ability to detect a large number of potentially life-threatening conditions efficiently. Materials & Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted at MGM Medical Hospital, Navi Mumbai, involving 100 patients aged 18–75 years presenting with acute abdomen of gastrointestinal origin. Exclusions included non-GI causes, pregnant women, and those outside the age range. A Toshiba 16-slice MDCT with oral contrast was used; findings were correlated clinically and surgically. Data were analyzed using GraphPad InStat v3.0. Results & Discussion: Out of 100 cases of acute abdomen, the imaging findings were of acute appendicitis (25%), acute bowel obstruction (20%), acute diverticulitis (13%), mesenteric pathologies (11%), acute appendicitis with rupture / abscess (6%), intraabdominal abscess (4%), small bowel ischemia (4%) acute enterocolitis (3%), intestinal perforation (3%), actively bleeding gastric ulcer (2%), acute infective/ inflammatory enteritis (2%), stump appendicitis (2%), acute bacterial peritonitis (2%), descending colon stricture (1%), perforated duodenal ulcer causing pneumoperitoneum and peritonitis (1%), pseudomembranous colitis (1%). Conclusions: MDCT effectively detects acute abdomen of GI origin, detecting primary pathologies and complications. Its strong correlation with clinical and surgical findings supports its role as a primary diagnostic tool.