ABC of General Surgery in Children: ACUTE ABDOMINAL PAIN IN CHILDREN

BMJ 1996;312:498-501 (24 February)

Education and debate

ABC of General Surgery in Children: ACUTE ABDOMINAL PAIN IN CHILDREN

Mark Davenport

Principles of diagnosis

A child with acute abdominal pain can be a disconcerting experiencefor most doctors, and there is often little in the way of aidsor investigations that can be used to arrive at a correct diagnosis.Certainly there are common conditions that cause problems inmost age groups (such as appendicitis) and others that are usuallyconfined to a specific age group (such as intussusception).

Abdominal pain is common, with most children never seeing adoctor, and, of those that do, most being seen and treated athome by a general practitioner. Of those that are taken to hospital,some recover without obvious sequelae despite the lack of aspecific diagnosis. The label non-specific abdominal pain hasbeen used for these cases, and this, in truth, will be the commonest"cause" of most acute abdominal pain that most clinicians willsee.