[Acute abdominal pain in diabetic ketoacidosis, the possible cause of diagnostic error. Review of 3 clinical cases].

Abdominal pain may lead the surgeon into diagnostic error. In diabetic patients diagnosis may be particularly difficult. In the presence of metabolic disorders with ketoacidosis the abdominal pain may not be surgically relevant but caused by the metabolic and electrolytic disorder. Differential diagnosis is as important as it is difficult. A short review of three cases reveals the probable clinical picture. The pathogenesis of the abdominal pain arising in ketoacidosis is yet to be clarified but a combined metabolic and electrolytic origin is hypothesised.