Cost of acute abdominal pain diagnosis

OBJECTIVES: To describe the costs of medical imaging practices in the diagn osis management of acute abdominal pain (AAP). METHODS: Medical imaging techniques until decision for treatment were prosp ectively recorded in patients presenting with AAP. Direct costs used hospit al analytic accountability Time of human resources involved was also survey ed prospectively. RESULTS: In 122 adult patients (2.3 examinations on average) before treatme nt decision making, the more frequent practices were: initial plain abdomen x-ray followed by tomodensitometry (36.8%), by echography or endoscopy (17 .2), plain abdomen solely (19.6%) or initial abdominal tomodensitometry (12 .3%). Direct costs ranged from 977 to 1073 FF for practices with initial pl ain abdomen x-ray, and from 996 to 1150 FF with initial tomodensitometry, i t ranged from 808 to 880 FF when the treatment decision was surgery, and 30 0 FF higher when it was medical. CONCLUSION: Differences in costs assessed for practices were very narrow. S uch information should be taken into account to determine cost-effective st rategies, and to built up reference guidelines.