EMS Care Chapter 16 | Gastrointestinal and Urologic Emergencies starts with an introduction to the topic and has presentations that cover the anatomy, types of injuries that could happen, and how to deal with the same. We subsequently explore in-depth the following lessons:
- Lesson 1: Gastrointestinal and Urological System – Anatomy and Physiology
- Lesson 2: Gastrointestinal Disorders
- Lesson 3: Urinary System Disorders
Core Concepts covered :
- To understand the anatomy, physiology, and role of the gastrointestinal and urologic systems.
- To understand the issues associated with these systems, so you can provide the appropriate prehospital care.
Important Notes
If you only want to take the online course for CME credit, you can pay here. The fee for online-only does NOT include a skills session nor (re)certification. You will receive a certificate for CME credit after successful completion of the course.
If you sign up for one of those courses, you will be automatically enrolled in this course. Click here for scheduled courses.
To get credit for this course, you must watch all the lessons in their entirety, the course review, and pass the quiz at the end with a score of 75% or better.
An Excerpt from the course on Gastrointestinal and Urologic Emergencies
Acute abdomen refers to the sudden onset of abdominal pain and is often associated with severe and progressive problems in the abdomen. Many times, this can be an emergency and may even require surgery depending on the circumstances that cause it.
Often, the reasons for this pain are inflammation of appendicitis, diverticulitis, colitis, the stretching or distention of an organ like the obstruction of the intestine, blockage of a bile duct by gallstones, swelling of the liver with hepatitis, etc, due to the loss of the supply of blood to an organ.
Note that abdominal pain also can occur for unclear reasons without inflammation, distention, or loss of blood supply. An important example of this latter type of pain is irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). These latter types of pain are often referred to as functional pain because there are no recognizable or visible causes for the pain.
As an EMT, evaluate the patient’s condition and the intensity of the pain and accordingly transport immediately.
If the pain is not severe and if the patient’s life is not under threat, do a secondary examination to evaluate the cause of the abdominal pain.
