Clinical Decision Tool for Abdominal Pain

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Implementation of a clinical decision tool for the safe discharge of patients presenting to the Emergency Department with abdominal pain

  • IRAS ID

    178067

  • Contact name

    Hooman Jafari

  • Contact email

    hooman.jafari@nhs.net

  • Sponsor organisation

    Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    0 years, 11 months, 31 days

  • Research summary

    Abdominal pain is a common presenting complaint in patients attending the Emergency Department (ED). Differential diagnosis for this symptom is vast and includes surgical and non-surgical conditions. In most cases, no cause can be found and a diagnosis of nonspecific abdominal pain (NSAP) is applied. Although the pathology is benign in majority of patients with NSAP, they usually require admission to hospital for pain control, observation and possible further investigations.

    The aim of the study is to develop a clinical decision rule to be utilised for the safe discharge of patients presenting with abdominal pain to the ED.

    Eligible patients will be adults who present to the ED with abdominal pain. Statistical analysis of correlation of clinical outcome with the clinical and laboratory findings will be used to propose an accurate and reliable clinical decision rule that will allow clinicians to safely discharge certain, and possibly most, patients who present to the ED with abdominal pain. If the findings of the prospective study are encouraging, further studies can be proposed to validate the clinical decision rule.

  • REC name

    East of England - Cambridge Central Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    20/EE/0224

  • Date of REC Opinion

    18 Sep 2020

  • REC opinion

    Further Information Favourable Opinion