The natural history of outpatient abdominal pain.

The charts of 115 patients presenting to the Ottawa Civic Hospital Emergency Department with abdominal pain were examined for objective signs, laboratory investigations, cost of investigations, and disposition of the patients. After the initial visit, 85 patients were contacted for followup. Of these, 67 percent had no abdominal pain within one week of the initial visit; 33 percent still had abdominal pain after 25 days. Few objective signs were found in either group. Laboratory results, though frequently abnormal, were often ignored. Regardless of the presence of abdominal pain after 25 days, 98 percent of the patients were satisfied with their emergency room treatment.