CPR APPLICATIONS FOUNDATION · CHAPTER 13 · ABNORMAL
Abnormal Foundations of the Gastrointestinal System
Organize the chapter before drilling into individual CPR concepts.
Supplemental foundation map: this page orients the detailed CPR Applications for Chapter 13. It is not part of the canonical CPR object inventory.
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Normal Foundations
Abnormal Foundations · You are here
Treatment Foundations
13.10 · SOURCE CPR FOUNDATION
Concept
Most GI pathology falls into a few mechanism buckets: inflammation, obstruction, malabsorption, bleeding, perforation, hepatobiliary failure, or portal hypertension. Step 1 usually wants the bucket before the disease name. Once the mechanism is identified, the location and complication pattern follow.
Pattern
Step 1 gives a dominant output: fever and focal pain, distention and obstipation, chronic diarrhea with deficiencies, hematemesis, melena, jaundice, ascites, encephalopathy, or severe abdominal pain. These clues should be sorted into mechanism and location before memorized diagnosis lists.
Rule
- Bucket the problem first. Decide inflammatory, obstructive, malabsorptive, bleeding, perforated, or hepatobiliary.
- Then localize the organ system. Upper GI, lower GI, pancreas, biliary tree, liver, or portal circulation.
- Then predict the consequence. Local pain, systemic inflammation, deficiency, shock, encephalopathy, or malignancy risk follows.
Applications
- Fever focal pain leukocytosis → inflammatory GI process
- Distention vomiting obstipation → obstruction
- Chronic diarrhea weight loss vitamin deficiency → malabsorption
- Hematemesis strongly suggests upper GI bleeding; melena often reflects upper GI bleeding but can occur with small-bowel or right-colon sources
- Hematochezia with instability → possible brisk upper GI bleed
- Dark urine with pale stools → consider cholestasis or biliary obstruction, with laboratory and imaging correlation
- Ascites varices splenomegaly → portal hypertension
- Epigastric pain radiating to back → pancreas
- Tip: Bucket first location second diagnosis third
CPR APPLICATIONS · ACTIVE REASONING
Sort GI symptoms by mechanism
Make a prediction first. Each worked answer is available without JavaScript. These exercises do not save or send responses.
Worked reasoning and transfer
Best answer: Intestinal obstruction. Failure of passage leads to proximal accumulation.
Transfer: What sign suggests strangulation or ischemia?
Worked reasoning and transfer
Best answer: Upper GI tract. Vomiting blood indicates bleeding proximal to ligament of Treitz in typical cases.
Transfer: Can brisk upper bleeding cause hematochezia?
Worked reasoning and transfer
Best answer: Portal hypertension. High portal pressure drives portosystemic collaterals and congestion.
Transfer: What changes when hypoalbuminemia contributes?
Explain it back: Write a causal chain for one decision, then identify which piece of evidence would change the answer.
Unscored teaching examples; not validated assessment items or patient-specific advice.
How to use this foundation map
- Identify the organizing mechanism.
- Recognize the pattern.
- Restate the rule without looking.
- Test transfer with applications and question practice.
Pair CPR with the 5P Approach™ when solving cases and questions.