Etiologies of abdominal pain emergencies in pediatrics

Abstract

Reports showed that children usually complained of acute abdominal pain, which indicated the presence of severe underlying conditions and can have significant clinical importance. Serious challenges have been reported in healthcare settings where an urgent evaluation of the cases was necessary to adequately manage the patient before developing serious complications that might even end up with death. Some of these conditions included intussusception, appendicitis, volvulus and adhesions. Although estimates indicated that only around 1% of pediatric patients with acute abdominal pain usually required surgical intervention, concerns regarding the overlooking and misdiagnosis of significant conditions that might have severe prognostic outcomes were aroused among the different emergency departments. This study reviewed the common causes of acute abdominal pain among children admitted to the emergency department. Our results indicated that various etiologies can develop acute abdominal pain and therefore, establishing an adequate diagnosis by differentiating between the different etiologies should be done by the attending physicians to enhance the outcomes and adequately manage the admitted patients. Gastrointestinal causes of acute abdominal pain were the commonest to cause admissions to the emergency department. However, care should also be provided to the less common conditions, which might include genitourinary and pulmonary disorders and therefore, a thorough examination of children should be provided not to conduct a misdiagnosis of the underlying condition.