Original articleConstipation as Cause of Acute Abdominal Pain in Children
Section snippets
Study Population
The study population was selected by including all children, 4 to 17.9 years old, who attended the primary pediatric clinics at the Children’s Hospital of Iowa at the University of Iowa for at least 1 health maintenance visit, during a 6-month period from January 2 to June 30, 2004. To identify these children, a computer search was performed with the codes 99382, 99392, 99383, 99393, 99384, and 99394 from the Current Procedure Terminology for initial and return well child visits. Children who
Results
The computer identified 1002 children, 4 to 17.9 years old. Forty children were excluded because of chronic diseases, such as cerebral palsy with severe mental retardation, severe mental retardation caused by chromosomal abnormalities, severe cardiac abnormalities with surgical procedures such as cardiac transplant or pacemaker implantation, and 1 child with ulcerative colitis diagnosed in infancy because of bloody stools. The charts of 962 children (493 boys, 469 girls) with a mean age of 9.1
Discussion
In our study population served by our primary care clinics, acute abdominal pain was a reason for the visit to the acute clinic or the emergency department in 9% of 962 children, 4 to 17.9 years old. Acute abdominal pain affected girls (12.2%) significantly more often than boys (5.3%). We found constipation to be the most frequent cause for the acute abdominal pain (48%). Acute constipation in 13% of cases and chronic constipation in 35% of cases were associated with acute abdominal pain severe
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