tailieunhanh - Chapter 014. Abdominal Pain

The diagnosis of "acute or surgical abdomen" is not an acceptable one because of its often misleading and erroneous connotation. The most obvious of "acute abdomens" may not require operative intervention, and the mildest of abdominal pains may herald an urgently correctable lesion. Any patient with abdominal pain of recent onset requires early and thorough evaluation and accurate diagnosis. Some Mechanisms of Pain Originating in the Abdomen Inflammation of the Parietal Peritoneum | Chapter 014. Abdominal Pain Table 14-1 Some Important Causes of Abdominal Pain The diagnosis of acute or surgical abdomen is not an acceptable one because of its often misleading and erroneous connotation. The most obvious of acute abdomens may not require operative intervention and the mildest of abdominal pains may herald an urgently correctable lesion. Any patient with abdominal pain of recent onset requires early and thorough evaluation and accurate diagnosis. Some Mechanisms of Pain Originating in the Abdomen Inflammation of the Parietal Peritoneum The pain of parietal peritoneal inflammation is steady and aching in character and is located directly over the inflamed area its exact reference being possible because it is transmitted by somatic nerves supplying the parietal peritoneum. The intensity of the pain is dependent on the type and amount of material to which the peritoneal surfaces are exposed in a given time period. For example the sudden release into the peritoneal cavity of a small quantity of sterile acid gastric juice causes much more pain than the same amount of grossly contaminated neutral feces. Enzymatically active pancreatic juice incites more pain and inflammation than does the same amount of sterile bile containing no potent enzymes. Blood and urine are often so bland as to go undetected if their contact with the peritoneum has not been sudden and massive. In the case of bacterial contamination such as in pelvic inflammatory disease the pain is frequently of low intensity early in the illness until bacterial multiplication has caused the elaboration of irritating rate at which the irritating material is applied to the peritoneum is important. Perforated peptic ulcer may be associated with entirely different clinical pictures dependent only on the rapidity with which the gastric juice enters the peritoneal cavity. The pain of peritoneal inflammation is invariably accentuated by pressure or changes in tension of the peritoneum .