[Children's abdominal pain--from symptoms to diagnosis]

Abdominal pain is an ambiguous symptom and for this reason it is a common cause of clinic visits. Abdominal pain might have various etiology--it could be organic, environmental, as well as psychological factors.

To analyze the ailments character as well as factors connected with children's abdominal pain from their manifestation to diagnosis.

226 children (143 girls and 83 boys) at the age of 3-18 years (an average age--12.5 +/- 3.9) admitted to ICZMP with the abdominal pain as a preliminary diagnosis were examined. The examination was based on the questionnaire prepared for this purpose as well as patients' medical documentation.

Ailments of the 47.3% of children lasted few months. 65.9% of patients felt the pain everyday or few times a week, in 59.3% of cases it had variable character. Localization of the pain was intra-abdomen in 77.7% of cases, however 61.5% of patients described it as changeably located. Pain attack predominating (35% of patients) lasted more than 1 h and usually had medium intensity. It was the stress that provoked abdominal pain in 35% of cases. Character logical features that might have influence on child's mental reactions were noted in 47.4% of patients. The pain connected with food intake occurred in 20.8% of cases. Food that might cause abdominal pain was eaten by 96% of children, the most popular were consumed everyday: sweets (42%), chips (23.9%) and sweetened fizzy drinks (20.8%). On the basis of examination and observation four groups of diseases were diagnosed: I--44.7%--inflammatory diseases of alimentary tract (predominating--25.7% of children suffered from gastritis, 12.4% of them had H. pylori infection), II group--32.3%--functional disorders (children with dyspepsia--22.1%), III--11.5%--parasitic diseases (ascariasis--8.8%) and IV group--11.5%--other disorders. 52.2% of children suffered from one disease, 38.1% from two, 9.3% from three.

Children directed to hospital diagnostics predominating complained of lingering, lasting even few months, pain situated in intra-abdomen with attacks recurring few times a week. The most frequent cause of abdominal pain among examined children was lingering inflammatory diseases of alimentary tract. Children with inflammatory diseases and functional disorders often have improper feeding habits.