Specific Management of Patients with Acute Abdomen during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Surgical Perspective from Germany

Kühn, Florian; Klein, Matthias; Laven, Henning; Börner, Nikolaus; Weinberger, Tobias; Streitparth, Florian; Werner, Jens; Schiergens, Tobias S.

During the current COVID-19 pandemic, the triage, assessment, and management of patients presenting to the emergency department with critical conditions has become ­challenging. The clinical features of COVID-19 are heterogeneous and subtle in many cases. They may easily be overlooked in the case of other acute diseases. Gastrointestinal symptoms are common in patients with COVID-19 as SARS-CoV-2 is able to enter gastrointestinal epithelial cells. However, these complaints can also be caused by a COVID-19-independent concomitant abdominal pathology. Therefore, patients with acute abdominal pain and fever need to be assessed very thoroughly. Based on a clinical case, we present our approach of managing emergency patients with acute abdomen and concomitant suspicion of ­COVID-19.