Last week, I published a preliminary practice guideline for nonoperative management of abdominal stab wounds. Click here to view it. A key part of that guideline is the serial abdominal exam. Surgeons talk about this a lot, but how do you do it? I posted about many of the details here.
The serial exam is nuanced enough so that it deserves its own clinical practice guideline! You won’t find this in any doctor or nursing books. It’s really simple, but the devil is truly in the details.
Click this image or the link below to download the guideline. I’ve also posted a Microsoft publisher version in case you want to modify it to suit your center.
Please feel free to email or post comments and questions in the area below this post!
References:
- How To: The Serial Abdominal Exam
- Practice guideline: Serial Abdominal Exam – pdf format
- Practice guideline: Serial Abdominal Exam – Microsoft Publisher format
