Incidence of COVID – 19 in patients with acute abdomen.

Background: Patients presented to the emergency department with acute abdomen may harbor COVID-19 virus without respiratory symptoms. Acute abdomen may be due to COVID-19 which causes thrombosis of mesenteric and renal vessels; peritonitis and pancreatitis. Objective: To study the incidence of COVID-19 in patients with acute abdomen tested negative for COVID-19 virus. Patients and methods: A cross sectional study in Baghdad private hospitals was performed in the period from January 2020 – January 2022. The patients had negative laboratory tests for COVID-19 virus, but they developed respiratory symptoms of COVID-19 during their course of management in the hospital. The operative findings of other patients raise the suspicion of COVID-19 (mesenteric thrombosis and pancreatitis) and their repeated laboratory tests reveals the COVID-19 virus infection, and were managed according to their surgical conditions. Diagnosis of COVID-19 virus was proved by repeated laboratory tests and CT scan of the chest. Results: The total number was 575 patients; their age ranged from 13-76 years, their mean age was 36.16±76 years. Male patients were 264(45.91 %), and the females were 311 (54.08%) patients. All the patients had negative laboratory test for COVID-19 before admission to the hospital, but 52 (9.20%) patients develop positive test during the course of their management in the hospital. COVID-19 was not the cause of acute abdomen in 32 (5.66%) patients, while 17 (3.00%) patients had mesenteric ischemia and 3 (0.53%) patients of them had pancreatitis proved to be due to COVID-19. The mortality in patients with acute abdomen due to COVID-19 was 5 (0.88%) patients while there was no mortality in non - COVID-19 Conclusion: Mesenteric ischemia and gangrene of the bowel may be due to COVID-19 which carries high morbidity and mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]