Talk:Abdominal examination

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[edit] Order of procedures

We were taught that palpation and percussion were done before auscultation - why auscultate when you may inadvertantly disturb areas of tenderness? • Leon 12:02, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

The theory, AFAIK, why the auscultation is first is:
  1. it's "least invasive first" -- you're not going to have a happy/cooperative patient after you've done rebound tenderness and find it is positive and
  2. in theory you may disturb the abdomen-- by doing deep palpation.
Here are a bunch of videos -- http://research.bidmc.harvard.edu/clinicalskills/clinSkills_List.asp?skillID=4 --note that 'auscultation' is mentioned first. Nephron  T|C 05:07, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

Sure, the references say it all. It still seems better to me to go for light palpation first since tendernesses can be assessed before the abdomen is touched in any other way - including percussion. Perhaps it's worth mentioning variations in techniques.• Leon 15:23, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Tone

It seems like this article reads more like instructions - e.g. "one should" - does anyone mind if I tidy it up? • Leon 04:02, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

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