Pedrero Olivares I, Garibay Huarte TR

Language: Spanish
References: 12
Page: 85-88
PDF size: 222.22 Kb.

ABSTRACT

Objective: To analyze the medical understanding of the term «chronic abdominal pain» in pediatrics and orient properly the diagnostic criteria and approach necessary for a successful treatment.
Methods: We performed a basic search in Medline, Scielo and PubMed for the term «chronic abdominal pain» to find reviews regarding the definition, diagnosis and treatment approach, focused on the protocol to rule out organic causes before labeling it as «functional abdominal pain».
Results: There are it no reviews of the topic focused enough to rule out diseases of organic origin as a cause of chronic abdominal pain.
Conclusion: It is a fact that the diseases of functional origin cover the largest amount of chronic abdominal pain in children, but there are no standard procedures to rule out organic origin. One of the most common challenges in the pediatric consult is the patient suffering abdominal pain. Most cases are acute infectious events that can be resolved quickly and without extraordinary interventions. However, sometimes patients relapse with the same symptoms and therapy does not work, this is where the pediatrician should guide his knowledge and carefully classify patients for proper diagnosis and treatment. In this series of two articles we will discuss the disease entity known as chronic abdominal pain, different from those of recurrent abdominal pain, functional abdominal pain, irritable bowel syndrome or functional dyspepsia. We also present the diagnostic approach to rule out organic causes of this disease and suggested treatment, both guided by clinical suspicion.

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