random Flashcards
Courvoisier’s law
Enlarged nontender gallbladder seen with obstruction of the common bile duct, most commonly with pancreatic cancer Note: not seen with gallstone obstruction because the gallbladder is scarred secondary to chronic cholelithiasis
Charcot’s triad
Seen with cholangitis:
- Fever (chills)
- Jaundice
- Right upper quadrant pain
Laplace’s law
Wall tension = pressure x radius (thus,
the colon perforates preferentially at the
cecum because of the increased radius
and resultant increased wall tension)
Murphy’s sign
Cessation of inspiration while palpating under the right costal margin; the patient cannot continue to inspire deeply because it brings an inflamed gallbladder under pressure (seen in acute cholecystitis)
Raccoon eyes
Bilateral black eyes as a result of basilar
skull fracture
Reynold’s pentad
- Fever
- Jaundice
- Right upper quadrant pain
- Mental status changes
- Shock/sepsis
Thus, Charcot’s triad plus #4 and #5; seen
in patients with suppurative cholangitis
What is dumping syndrome?
Delivery of a large amount of
hyperosmolar chyme into the small
bowel, usually after vagotomy and a
gastric drainage procedure (pyloroplasty/
gastrojejunostomy); results in autonomic
instability, abdominal pain, and diarrhea
What is Ogilvie’s syndrome?
Massive nonobstructive colonic
dilatation
What is short-gut syndrome?
Malnutrition resulting from <200 cm of
viable small bowel
Abdominal x-ray (AXR)
finding with SBO?
Air-fluid levels
Electrolyte deficiency
causing ileus?
Hypokalemia
Abdominal organ injured
in blunt abdominal
trauma?
Liver (not the spleen, as noted in recent
studies!)
Abdominal organ injured
in penetrating abdominal
trauma?
small bowel
femoral vessels
lat to med NAVEL
thoracatomy vs thorocostomy
cotomy = open chest costomy = chest tube