Acute abdomen is a common and sometimes dramatic clinical condition, which can be fatal if diagnosis is not made in time. A large number of diseases can cause an acute abdomen which makes a targeted and rapid diagnostic approach utterly important. The initial diagnostic approach is based on the clinical assessment (including medical history and physical examination) which allows doctors to quickly establish a suspected diagnosis with a relatively high sensitivity but a rather low specificity. Further diagnostics, including laboratory markers, imaging and - if necessary - interventional diagnostics should be initiated quickly after the first clinical assessment in order to confirm the suspected diagnosis or to further classify unclear cases. The clinical assessment is the leading diagnostic tool that determines further diagnostic approaches for patients with an acute abdomen and thus enables adequate and timely therapy.
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