Pediatric abdominal pain is one of the most common conditions seen in pediatric surgery clinics and a headache for parents. Parents are often overwhelmed by the crying caused by abdominal pain in infants and toddlers, and abdominal pain in school-age children often delays school and interferes with learning. Pediatric abdominal pain is commonly associated with functional disorders such as intestinal flatulence, gastroenteritis, enlarged abdominal lymph nodes due to upper respiratory tract infection, gastrointestinal dysfunction, and constipation. These diseases will disappear after medical or family management of abdominal pain symptoms. Among the surgical diseases causing abdominal pain in pediatric patients, organic diseases are common and often require hospitalization and surgical treatment to cure. These surgical diseases have different characteristics at different ages in pediatric patients: intussusception and incarcerated hernia are common in infants and young children, acute and chronic appendicitis in school-age children, and intestinal obstruction due to various causes. In addition, some uncommon to diseases, such as: congenital intestinal canal malformation, abdominal tumor, congenital hydronephrosis, Crohn’s disease, intestinal tuberculosis, etc. The clinical manifestations are often not specific, and irregular abdominal pain is the first symptom, which sometimes cannot attract sufficient attention of parents. When a child suddenly develops unexplained persistent abdominal pain and vomiting, parents must pay attention to it and take the child to the hospital for a comprehensive examination to avoid not getting timely treatment, resulting in adverse consequences and even life-threatening.
The causes of pediatric intestinal obstruction are different from those of adults. Adult intestinal obstruction generally has a history of abdominal surgery, abdominal trauma, and partly due to tumors. A large proportion of intestinal obstruction in children is caused by congenital malformations, such as: Meckel’s diverticulum, intestinal duplication malformation, mesenteric cyst, large omental cyst, mesenteric hiatal hernia, internal hernia caused by various congenital cords, etc. This kind of children’s intestinal obstruction caused by congenital malformation has atypical symptoms, rapid onset and development, difficult preoperative diagnosis, and the cause of the disease is often found only after surgery, and the death rate is high if it cannot be treated in time. It is a major threat to the life and health of children.
So pediatric abdominal pain must be timely to the specialist hospital to do a comprehensive examination to be safe!