Recurrent abdominal pain in children and adolescents: a hospital based study

Abstract

Background: Recurrent abdominal pain (RAP) is very common in children of age group below 15 years. It affects about 10-20% of school going children. It is comprised of both organic and nonorganic causes and is therefore very challenging in diagnosing and treating the disorder. Hence this study was aimed to determine causes of RAP in the patients involved in the study.Methods: This was a hospital based study and includes 100 patients of age group of 2 to 15 years attending the pediatric and medicine OPD of College of medicine and Sagore Dutta Hospital, from May 2014 to April 2015. These children were subjected to thorough physical examination, systemic and clinical examinations, lab investigations and finally categorized the causes for RAP either as organic or nonorganic.Results: Out of 100 patients of RAP, male predominance (67%) was seen and forty-four (44%) of the patient population belonged to age group of 4 to 6 years. Organic RAP was found in 88% of patients and RAP due to non-organic causes was found in 12% of patients.Conclusions: Organic cause predominantly parasitic infections were found to be the common etiological factor for RAP in most of the children. Family history associated RAP was dominated in nonorganic etiology.