Clinical presentation of patients with acute intermittent porphyria-our experience with 12 patients

Acute Intermittent Porphyria [AIP] presents as acute abdomen and implicates emergency and injudicious surgery. A clinical profile of AIP has been studied in 12 patients in order to raise a high suspicion index so that injudicious surgery is avoided. The study shows that the cases fell in 2nd and 3rd decade with a male preponderance of 11:1. Abdominal pain, tachycardia, hypertension and neuropsychiatric manifestationns were found in almost all the cases. Four out of 12 patients had underwent surgery as [acute abdomen] and three died with septicaemia. Three fourth of the cases belonged to Baiochistan