Gastroenterology & General Surgery Flashcards
Acute abdomen
- Presentation
- Organ rupture - causes
- Peritonitis - causes
- Local peritonitis - causes
- Colic - description
- Acute tenderness, guarding, rigidity, absence of bowel sounds, septic (sweating, pale, weak pulse, shallow breath)
- Spleen, aorta, ectopic pregnancy
- Perforation (ulcer, diverticulum, appendix, bowel, gallbladder)
- Diverticulitis, cholecystitis, salpingitis
- Regularly waxing/waning, muscular spasm in hollow viscus (gut, ureter, uterus, bile duct, gallbladder)
Abdominal pain
- History - associated symptoms
- Bloods
- Bedside tests
- Imaging
- Vomiting, haematemesis, eating/drinking, swallowing, stools (loose/blood), urine (frequency/urgency/blood), vaginal discharge, menstruation, FEVER, weight loss, night sweats
- FBC, U+;E, LFTs, glucose, CRP, amylase
- Urine dip - glucose, infection, pregnancy
- CXR (perforation), USS abdomen, CT
Abdominal examination - to complete
Hernial orifices External genitalia PR Urine dip Stool sample if feel appropriate
Appendicitis
- Symptoms
- McBurney’s point - significance and location
- Rovsings sign - how to elicit and significance
- Other differentials (4)
- Bedside tests
- Blood tests
- Imaging
- Definitive management
- Other management
- Periumbilical pain moving to LIF, tachycardia, fever, peritonism, vomiting, constipation
- Most common location for base of appendix (where it attaches to the caecum). 2/3 of the way from the umbilicus to the right ASIS
- Press on RIF and pain in the LIF. Can be present in appendicitis
- Ectopic pregnancy (RULE OUT), ovarian cyst (torsion/rupture), meckel’s diverticulitis, mesenteric adenitis
- Urine dip, BM, pregnancy test, BP, palpable RIF mass
- FBC, U+E, CRP - leucocytes + CRP raised
- USS abdomen, CT if diagnosis unclear
- Appendectomy
- Antibiotics - metronidazole, cefuroxime
Diarrhoea
Causes
- GI
- Systemic
- Drugs
- Infective
- Important history questions
- Significant findings requiring follow up
Differentials
- Bloody
- Mucus
- Frank pus
- Explosive
- Steatorrhoea
Investigations
- Bedside
- Blood
- Non-bedside
- Imaging
- Management
C difficile
- Diagnosis
- Complication
- Acute management
- Recurrent management
- Infection, malignancy, IBD, IBS, malabsorption
- Endocrine, anxiety, bacterial overgrowth
- Laxatives, antibiotics, SSRIs, metformin
- E.coli, shigella, salmonella, campylobacter
- Acute/chronic, travel, diet change, contact with D+V, fever, pain
- Anaemia, weight loss, nocturnal diarrhoea
- Infective, IBD, colorectal cancer, polyps
- IBS, colorectal cancer, polyps
- IBD, diverticulitis, fistula/abscess
- Cholera, giardia, rotavirus
- Pancreatic insufficiency, biliary obstruction
12. PR (overflow due to constipation) Urine dip and culture Stool sample - viral / bacterial / occult blood 13. FBC, U+E, LFTs, CRP, TFTs 14. GI Endoscopy 15. AXR, abdominal ultrasound
- Treat the cause, rehydrate, slow bowel movements (?) - opioids / stop medication
- Two stage: 1. Rapid screening/PCR for C.diff protein, 2. Specific ELISA for toxins
- Toxic megacolon
- Stop causative antibiotic, metronidazole (mild), vancomycin (severe)
- Fidaxomicin PO
Nausea + Vomiting
Causes
- GI
- Metabolic
- Neurological
- Cardiovascular
- Drugs
Timing
- Morning
- 1 hour post-food
- Relieves pain
- Preceded by loud gurgling
- Infection (pancreatitis, pyelonephritis, gastroenteritis, cholecystitis), obstruction, inflammation
- DKA, hypercalacaemia, hyponatraemia, Addison’s disease, pregnancy
- Head trauma, tumour, motion sickness, Meniere’s
- MI
- Opioids, antibiotics, chemotherapy, alcohol
- Pregnancy, raised ICP
- Gastric stasis/gastroparesis (DM)
- Peptic ulcer
- GI obstruction
Bowel cancer - guidelines for suspicion
40+ with unexplained weight loss and abdominal pain or
50+ with unexplained rectal bleeding or
60+ over with:
Iron-deficiency anaemia
Changes in their bowel habit
Tests show occult blood in their faeces
Colorectal carcinoma / bowel cancer
- Commonest type
- Predisposing factors
- Genes responsible
- Right-sided presentation
- Left-sided presentation
- Examination signs
- Blood tests
- Further tests
- Staging (Duke’s)
- Screening
- Test if FH of FAP
- Adenocarcinoma
- Polyps, IBD, genetic, diet (low fibre, red meat), alcohol, smoking, previous cancer
- FAP, HNPCC
- Diarrhoea, weight loss, anaemia, RIF mass, abdominal pain - often late presenting
- Constipation, bleeding, PR bleed/mucus, tenesmus
- Abdominal mass, hepatomegaly (metastases), rectal mass, IDA signs
- FBC (looking for IDA), LFTs, U+E, CEA (monitor progress)
- Colonoscopy, barium swallow, imaging (MR/endorectal US)
- 1 (to muscularis), 2 (to suberosa), 3 (nodes involved), 4 (distant spread)
- 55 -one-off flexible sigmoidoscopy, 60-74 - home-testing (FOB/FIT) for occult blood every 2 years
- DNA at 16
Oesophageal cancer
- Type (commonest and BO-associated)
- Virus associated with commonest type
- Symptoms
- Signs
- Common metastasis
- Tests
- Non-metastasis treatment
- Metastasised treatment
- Urgent 2ww referral criteria
- Non-urgent referral criteria
- Squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma
- EBV
- Fatigue, increasing dysphagia, odynophagia, hoarseness, vomiting, haematemesis, cough
- Weight loss, anaemia, hepatomegaly, lymphadenopathy, ascites
- Liver
- FBC, LFTs, upper GI endoscopy, barium swallow, further imaging for staging
- Oesophageal resection
- Palliative
- Dysphagia or 55+ and weight loss + one of upper abdominal pain, reflux or dyspepsia
- Haematemesis, or 55+ and other upper GI symptoms
Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD)
- Causes
- Symptoms
- Tests
- Conservative management
- Medical management
- Surgical management (when severe and refractory)
- Surgical complications
Barrett’s Oesophagus
- Cause
- Location
- Histological changes
- Significance
- Management - no dysplasia
- Management - low grade dysplasia
- Management - moderate/high grade dysplasia
- LOS hypotension, hiatus hernia, oeseophageal dysmotility (e.g. systemic sclerosis), obesity, gastric acid hypersecretion, smoking, alcohol, pregnancy
- Heartburn, belching, acid brash, water brash, odynophagia, nocturnal asthma, chronic cough, laryngitis
- Endoscopy if dysphagia / >55 + ALARMS symptoms / treatment refractory dyspepsia
- Weight loss, stop smoking, small/regular meals, reduce hot drinks/alcohol/citrus/fizzy drinks/spicy. Avoid eating 3 hours before bed and raise bed head
- Antacids or alginates (Gaviscon) for symptom relief, and PPI. Add H2 blocker/double PPI dose if refractory
- Fundoplication
- Dysphagia, ‘gas bloat’ syndrome, new diarrhoea
- Chronic GORD
- Lower oesophagus
- Stratified squamous to simple columnar with interspersed goblet cells (dysplasia)
- Oesophageal adenocarcinoma more likely
- High dose PPI
- Endoscopic radiofrequency ablation
- Oesophagectomy or endoscopic ablation/mucosal resection
Gastric Carcinoma
- Commonest type
- Risk factors
- Symptoms
- Signs
- Blood tests
- Gold-standard investigations
- Management if localised
- Management if metastatic
Gastrectomy
- Physical complications (+ causes)
- If raised amylase and abdominal pain
- Metabolic complications
- Adenocarcinoma
- H. pylori, smoking, poor diet, blood group A, chronic gastritis, pernicious anaemia, adenomatous polyps
- B symptoms, N+V, abdominal pain, dyspepsia, dysphagia (oesophageal obstruction), upper GI bleed
- Palpable epigastric mass, Virchow’s node (left supraclavicular)
- FBC, LFTs (metastases)
- Upper GI endoscopy, barium swallow
- Resection / gastrectomy
- Palliative, stents if obstructions
- Abdominal fullness (eat little/often), afferent loop syndrome (upper abdominal pain, bilious vomit), diarrhoea (codeine), gastric tumour, increased amylase
- Consider afferent loop obstruction
- Dumping syndrome (post-prandial sweating/fainting - eat less sugar/more pectin/take acarbose), weight loss, bacterial overgrowth/malabsorption (blind loop syndrome), anaemia, osteomalacia
Pancreatic cancer
- Commonest type
- Risk factors
- Symptoms
- Signs
- Rarer features
- Blood tests
- Further investigations
- Management options
Carcinoid tumours
- Origin
- Common sites
- Carcinoid syndrome
- Cardiac involvement - which side
- Management
Carcinoid crisis
- Cause
- Symptoms
- Management
- Ductal adenocarcinoma
- Smoking, DM, pancreatitis, KRAS2 gene mutation
- Usually painless, abdominal mass, weight loss, non-specific back pain
- Painless progressive obstructive jaundice (HoP tumour) and non-tender palpable gallbladder (Courvoisier’s law), if tail then pancreatitis pain symptoms
- Thrombophlebitis migrans, high Ca2+, marantic endocarditis, portal HTN (splenic vein thrombosis), nephrosis (renal vein metastases)
- FBC, LFTs
- USS, CT, ERCP
- Surgical (Whipple’s procedure), palliative (stenting, pain relief)
- Enterochromaffin cell from neural crest; produce 5HT
- Appendix, ileum, rectum
- Implies hepatic involvement; bronchoconstriction, flushing, RUQ pain, endocrine abnormality, diarrhoea
- Octreotide (somatostatin analogue), loperamide
- Right - tricuspid insufficiency + pulmonary stenosis
- Tumour outgrows vessel supply or handled too much perioperatively, tumour mediators flow out
- Life threatening vasodilation, hypotension, tachycardia, bronchoconstriction, hyperglycaemia
- Octreotide, supportive, fluid balance (central line)
Constipation
- Medical causes
- Surgical causes
- Drug causes
- Important questions
- Examination
- Blood tests
- Imaging
- Conservative management
- Medical management
- Laxative - types and examples (4, ‘BOSS’)
- When not to use stimulants
- What to use if pain e.g. fissure
- Other useful use for osmotic laxative
- Diverticulitis, IBD, IBS, Coeliac, immobility, dehydration, raised calcium/phosphate, Parkinson’s disease, pregnancy, hypothyroidism
- Appendicitis, malignancy, obstruction, ischaemic bowel
- Anti-cholinergics, opiates, iron, calcium channel blockers (e.g. amlodipine, nifedipine, verapamil, diltiazem)
- Normal bowel habit - how many stools per day (? <3 per week) and for how long, overflow diarrhoea, melaena, pain, diet, new medications, red flags (fever, weight loss, night sweats), foreign travel, flatus/mucus
- Abdominal and PR
- FBC (haematinics e.g. B12/folate), U+E, LFTs, TFTs
- USS, AXR, CT (extreme)
- Exercise, fibre
- Laxatives, enema
- Bulking (methylcellulose), Osmotic (lactulose), Softer (docusate), Stimulants (senna)
- Intestinal obstruction, acute colitis
- Softening
- Hepatic encephalopathy
Acute pancreatitis - causes
I - idiopathic
G - gallstones
E - ethanol
T - trauma
S - steroids M - mumps A - autoimmune S - scorpion venom H - High: lipid, calcium, parathyroid E - ERCP D - drugs: furosemide, azathioprine, thiazides, tetracycline, statins, oestrogen
Acute pancreatitis
- Definition
- Causes
- Symptoms
- Signs
- Criteria for clinical outcome, score for ITU
- Specific blood tests (and results)
- Other bloods (and results)
- Imaging
- Management
- Early complications
- Late (>1 weeks) complications
- Acute inflammation of the pancreas by autodigestion
- I GET SMASHED
- N+V, abdominal pain radiating to back and relieved by sitting forward
- Grey turner’s sign (flank bruising), cullen’s sign (umbilical bruising), tachycardia, fever, shock, ileus, rigid abdomen
- Glasgow score, >3
- Amylase (>1000/may be normal), lipase (more specific, especially in alcohol, rise earlier/falls later)
- FBC (raised WBC), U+E, LFTs (if raised ALT, gallstones), raised glucose, urea, CRP, decreased albumin and calcium
- CT (1st line for severity), AXR (no psoas shadow from retroperitoneal fluid, sentinel loop of proximal jejunum from ileus), CXR (perforation), USS (if gallstones/raised AST), ERCP (if LFTs worsen)
- Supportive - O2, fluids, analgesics, anti-emetics, insulin, antibiotics 5-7 days, PPI, regular monitoring
- Shock, ARDS, renal failure, DIC, low Ca2+, high BM
- Pancreatic necrosis/pseudocyst (fever, mass, persistent high amylase/LFT), abscess, bleeding, thrombosis, fistulae
Chronic pancreatitis
- Definition
- Causes
- Clinical features
- Bloods
- Imaging
- Management
- Diet advice if exocrine insufficiency
- Complications
- Irreversible inflammation +/ fibrosis
- Alcohol, high calcium/PTH/lipids, biliary disease, cystic fibrosis
- Jaundice, abdominal pain (radiates to back, improves on sitting forward/hot water bottles), bloating, steatorrhoea (loose, greasy, foul-smelling), weight loss
- LFTs (abnormal if coexisting liver disease / compression of the intra-pancreatic bile duct), NOT serum amylase
- CXR, USS/CT (pancreatic calcifications)
- Lifestyle (stop drinking/smoking), analgesia, screening for diabetes/osteoporosis, pancreatin (lipase, amylase, protease) with all food if exocrine insufficiency
- Food distributed between 3 meals + 2-3 snacks / day. Avoid legumes (peas, beans, lentils) and high-fibre as difficult to digest. Reduced fat diets not recommended
- Pseudocysts, DM, biliary obstruction, local arterial aneurysm, splenic vein thrombosis, gastric varices, pancreatic carcinoma
Dyspepsia
- Definition
- Local causes
- Systemic causes
- Drug causes
- Important symptoms ‘ALARMS’
- Other symptoms
- Investigations (under or over 55)
- Peptic ulcers - cause
- Duodenal - relation to eating/antacids
- Gastric - commonest patient cohort
- Relation to eating
- Conservative management
- Antacids - types and examples
- Indigestion
- GORD, H. pylori, gastritis, gastric/duodenal ulcer, hiatus hernia
- Infection, alcohol, smoking
- NSAIDs, steroids, bisphosphonates
- Anaemia (ID), Loss of weight, Anorexia, Recent/progressive onset, Malaena/haematemesis, Swallowing difficulty
- Epigastric, related to hunger/food, fullness after meals, heartburn, tender epigastrium
- Under 55 needs urea breath test, add OGD if 55+
- Layer breakdown (steroids, NSAIDs, H. pylori), increased acid (ZES gastrinoma, stress, alcohol, caffeine, smoking, spicy food)
- Better after eating, relieved by antacids
- Elderly, on lesser curve
- Worse when eating, relieved by antacids
- Weight loss, stop smoking, less drinking/hot drinks
- PPI (lanzoprazole, omeprazole), H2 blocker (ranitidine)
Dysphagia
- Intraluminal causes
- Extraluminal causes
- Systemic causes
- Important questions
- 1st line investigation
- Further imaging
Achalasia
- Causes
- Symptoms/signs
- Most important diagnostic test + finding
- Other imaging + finding
- Management
- Inflammation (oesophagitis), malignancy
- Stricture, malignancy, achalasia (solids and liquids), goitre, vascular obstruction
- Parkinson’s, myasthaenia gravis, scleroderma, bulbar palsy, motor neurone disease
- Solids/liquids (both from start motility disorder, solids 1st worsening stricture), difficult to start swallowing (bulbar palsy), odynophagia (ulceration/spasm), intemittent (spasm) / continuous (stricture), bulge/gurgle when drinking (pharyngeal pouch), B symptoms
- Endoscopy
- Barium swallow, CT
- LOS fails to relax (myenteric plexus degeneration) -
- Liquids as well as solids, heartburn, regurgitation
- Manometry - high LOS tone, doesn’t relax if swallow 10. Barium swallow - dilated tapering oesophagus ‘bird’s beak’
- Endoscopic balloon dilatation/Heller’s cardiomyotomy then PPI
Biliary medicine - definitions
- Cholelithiasis
- Choledocholithiasis
- Cholecystitis
- Biliary colic
- Cholestasis
- Cholangitis
- Gallstones in gallbladder
- Gallstones passed into biliary tree
- Inflammation of the gallbladder
- Intermittent RUQ pain from gallstones irritating bile ducts
- Blockage to bile flow
- Infection + obstruction of the biliary system
Gallstones
- Types
- Percentage that are radio-opaque
- Factors increasing incidence
- Main precipitant for mixed stones
- 5 Fs of gallstone disease
- Courvoisier’s law
- Gallbladder size vs obstructed biliary tree
- Commonest presentation
- Cause of obstructive jaundice due to gallstones
- Imaging
- Asymptomatic management
- Medical management
- Surgical management
- Management if inoperable but symptomatic
- Cholesterol (large, solitary), pigment (small/irregular, from haemolysis)
- 10% seen on x-ray
- Overweight, pregnancy, diuretics, smoking
- Infection
- Fat, female, fertile, forty, fair
- Not gallstones if presenting with enlarged palpable gallbladder and painless obstructive jaundice - pancreatic cancer until proven otherwise
- Smaller (larger in biliary tree obstruction)
- 80% asymptomatic
- Choledocholithiasis
- USS first line, MRCP if no stones on USS but there is bile duct dilatation / raised bilirubin
- Conservative
- Medical: pain relief, anti-emetics, antibiotics if infection
- If symptomatic/complications: cholecystectomy
- ERCP / lithotripsy (US shock waves)
Cholecystitis
Acute
- Main cause
- Presentation
- Signs
- Blood tests
- USS findings
- Medical management
- Surgical management
Chronic
- Definition
- Presentation
- Gallstones impaction in neck of gallbladder
- Feverish, unwell, RUQ pain radiating to shoulder, taking shallow breaths, N+V, dyspepsia (no jaundice) - inflammatory component differs from simple biliary colic
- Fever, tachycardia, tachypnoea, Murphy’s sign (patient stops inspiring deeply on palpation of RUQ as gallbladder moves down to costal margin)
- FBC, U+E, LFTs, CRP, amylase, maybe culture
- Thickened gallbladder wall, stones / sludge within, fluid around, dilated bile ducts
- NBM, fluids, antibiotics (cover gram positive and negative) anti-emetic, analgesia
- Cholecystectomy - if severe / complications within 72 hours, up to 1 week if not
- Chronic inflammation/colic
- ‘Flatulent dyspepsia’, fat intolerance, vague pain, distension