Abdominal Pain

Abdominal pain can present in a variety of ways. After all, your abdominal area is home to many different organs doing a variety of functions!

One important condition to rule out in the case of abdominal pain is the possibility of appendicitis.

Appendicitis is an inflammation and infection of the appendix. This is a little pouch on the right side of your intestine. Because this pouch is not always in the same place on everybody, and because the infection does not always follow the same course in everybody, appendicitis can be a very difficult diagnosis to make. When the infection is just starting, your pain can be mild and your tests are usually normal. As it gets worse, the appendix starts to swell and the pain gets worse. At this point, your tests show a problem only about half of the time. Finally, the inflammation spreads into your lower belly, and we can make a diagnosis. If the appendicitis is not treated at this point, the appendix will swell more, and eventually rupture (pop). If this happens, serious infection can spread through your abdomen, and many complications can follow. The time for this all to happen can be as short as 12 hours or as long as 3 days.

Generally, in cases of adominal pain leading to appendicitis the following symptoms may occur:

If you are experiencing these symptoms, you should see a doctor to rule out this life threatening emergency.