ATI Detailed Answer Key Medical Surgical Related

Review ATI Detailed Answer Key Medical Surgical related questions and content

A 44-year-old female client had an emergency cholecystectomy three days ago for a ruptured gallbladder. The client has severe abdominal pain, abdominal rigidity, distension, increased temperature, tachycardia and an elevated white blood count (WBC). The client has probably developed:

  • A. gastritis.
  • B. evisceration.
  • C. peritonitis.
  • D. a pulmonary embolism.
Correct Answer: C

Rationale: Assessment findings of gastritis would reveal anorexia, nausea and vomiting, epigastric fullness and tenderness, and discomfort. Evisceration is the extrusion of abdominal viscera as a result of trauma or sutures failing in a surgical incision. Peritonitis, inflammation of the peritoneum, can occur when an abdominal organ, such as the gallbladder, perforates and leaks blood and fluid into the abdominal cavity, which causes infection and irritation. Assessment findings of a pulmonary embolism would reveal severe substernal chest pain, tachycardia, tachypnea, shortness of breath, anxiety or panic, and wheezing and coughing, often accompanied by blood-tinged sputum.