Background: Abdominal pain of less than a weeks’ duration is the presenting complaint in one of every five patients admitted to the surgical Accidents and Emergency Ward of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi. This study is a prospective one, to determine the cause of abdominal pain in a large number of patients.

Methods: A monthly audit of discharge summaries for all patients admitted with acute abdominal pain was prepared and transferred to a special study pro forma to provide data over the 84-month period from January 1998 to December 2004.

Results: There were 3114 patients, 2070 men and 1044 women. The ages ranged from 15 to 95 years. The seven most common causes of the admissions were acute appendicitis 698 (22.4%), typhoid ileal perforation (506) 16.2%, acute intestinal obstruction 391 (12.6%), gastroduodenal perforations 342 (11.0%), non-specific abdominal pain 306 (9.8%), abdominal injures 260 (8.3%) and acute cholecystitis 102 (3.2%). There were 1976 (63.4%) emergency operations. Appendicectomy was a common operation that was carried out (638 cases or 32.3%). Two hundred and thirty patients (7.4%) died. Thirty-five patients died before and 195 after operation. Of these 230 deaths, 110 (47.8%) reported to the hospital after three or more days of illness. Twenty-six per cent and 23.7% of postoperative deaths occurred after emergency colonic resections and closure of gastroduodenal perforations, respectively.

Conclusion: Acute appendicitis, typhoid ileal perforation, acute intestinal obstruction and gastroduodenal perforations were the leading causes of acute admissions for abdominal pain to our hospital. Late presentation was associated with increased mortality.