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Presentation Complaints may range from occasional stool that is not well formed to acute, copious diarrhea that produces profound dehydration and shock. Patients with inflammatory or infectious diarrhea often present with fever, tenesmus (the frequent urge to defecate), abdominal pain,…
Presentation Patients with functional constipation will often come in with the complaint of abdominal pain or bloating. Often it is not until they are asked that they will describe infrequent bowel movements, straining at stooling, incomplete evacuation, hard or small…
Presentation The patient presents complaining of a gastrostomy tube (G-tube) or jejunostomy tube (J-tube) that is not functioning properly. The most common complaints are that the tube is obstructed, leaking, displaced, or that there is pain and/or redness surrounding the…
Presentation In most patients, the symptoms are so characteristic that they are nearly diagnostic. Initial onset of pain often occurs during or after defecation, usually after passing a large, hard bowel movement or following an explosive bout of diarrhea. Later,…
Presentation A patient with an isolated rib fracture or a minor costochondral separation usually has recently fallen, injuring the side of the chest; been struck by a blunt object; coughed violently; or leaned over a rigid edge. The initial chest…
Presentation The patient may have been sprayed with tear gas (e.g., Mace) during a riot being dispersed by the police or may have accidentally sprayed oneself. The patient might complain of burning of the eyes, nose, mouth, and skin, as…
Presentation The patient was trapped in an enclosed space with toxic gases or fumes (e.g., produced by a fire, a leak, evaporation of a solvent, a chemical reaction, or fermentation of silage) and comes to the emergency department or acute…
Presentation Patients, typically younger than age 40, present with a day or more of steady aching with intermittent stabbing chest pain. The pain may follow an episode of minor trauma, a period of frequent coughing, or unusual physical activity or…
Presentation The patient’s symptoms generally begin with 1 to 5 days of fever, malaise, and myalgias that are often indistinguishable from other acute upper respiratory tract infections (URIs). With acute bronchitis, the acute phase is followed by a second phase…