Pattern of surgical acute abdomen in the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital.

This paper presents a retrospective study on 279 cases of surgical acute abdomen seen and treated at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital over a period of about 2 1/2 years, September 1983-February 1986. The majority of the patients were in the second and third decades of life. Acute appendicitis and obstructed hernias were the commonest causes of surgical acute abdomen, while abdominal pain and vomiting were the commonest symptoms. Only two patients in the series had acute pancreatitis. The overall mortality was 13.3%.