The role of ultrasonography at the patients who appeal to emergency department with epigastric pain

In this study we aimed to evaluate the satisfaction of patients who appeal to emergency service with epigastric pain and implemented bed side ultrasonography. At the same time we planned to examine ultrasonography's effect on the physician's clinical decision about the patients with epigastric pain. This study was done between 8th of June and 4th of October in 2013 at Akdeniz University Hospital. The patients between the ages of 18-65 years who got non-traumatic epigastric pain were included in this study. Before this study we got the approval of the local ethic committee. Patients who got epigastric pain and took part in this study were planned to be implemented ultrasonography by the physician's clinical decision. For each patient, satisfaction scores and the score for the physician's clinical decision were marked on the standard patient information form. Patients were called by phone and questioned if they visited emergency service again or they died. We used Medcalc software. 157 patients were included in this study. 109 (69.4%) patients were implemented bed side USG but 48 patients were not. We identified that USG did not create statistically significant difference at patient satisfaction (p= 0,131). We also identified that application of the bed side USG did not change the physicians clinical decision at the patients who appealed to the emergency service with epigastric pain (p= 0,17). In the light of these results we decided that the patients who appeal to emergency service triage with epigastric pain with stable vitals and without any pathological history and physical examination sign might not be implemented USG Key words: Epigastric pain, Ultrasonography, Emergency Service, Patient Satisfaction