A gastrointestinal system disease that involves inflammation of the peritoneum resulting from perforation of the gastrointestinal tract, which produces immediate chemical inflammation followed shortly by infection from intestinal organisms. Peritonitis can also result from appendicitis, diverticulitis, strangulating intestinal obstruction, pancreatitis, pelvic inflammatory disease, mesenteric ischemia, intraperitoneal blood, barium, or peritoneo-systemic shunts, drains, and dialysis catheters in the peritoneal cavity. The symptoms include abdominal pain and tenderness, fever, fluid in the abdomen, nausea, vomiting and low urine output.
The label is preserved as historical source vocabulary and may not map cleanly to current terminology.
Use this page as a research index. Persistent, severe, unexplained or worsening symptoms need appropriate clinical assessment.
The use profile explains the vocabulary and connects related data. It does not establish safe preparation, dose, route, effectiveness or suitability for a modern diagnosis.