Medical causes of abdominal pain
Overview
Although abdominal pain is generally considered a surgical disease, there are countless medical causes of abdominal pain to consider. See also abdominal pain.
Causes
Above the diaphragm
- myocardial infarction
- pericarditis
- pneumonia
- pulmonary embolism
- pleurisy
- Bornholm disease
- glaucoma
Metabolic
- DKA
- Addison disease
- hypercalcemia
- uremia
- porphyria
- phaeochromocytoma
Toxicology
- lead poisoning
- metal ingestion
- corrosive ingestion
- Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome
- Narcotic bowel syndrome
- Withdrawal syndromes
- Body packing
- Envenoming (e.g. red back spider, Irukandji syndrome, black snake)
Hematology
- sickle cell crisis
- retroperitoneal hemorrhage due to anticoagulants
- lymphadenopathy
Neurology and functional
- Abdominal migraines
- Cyclical vomiting
- Herpes zoster
- Irritable bowel syndrome
Immunology
- vasculitis (e.g. Henoch-Schonlein Purpura, PAN)
- intestinal angioedema (e.g. C1 esterase deficiency, can also be due to ACE inhibitors)
- Familial Mediterranean Fever
Infections
- gastroenteritis
- tuberculosis
- intestinal parasites
- typhoid
- malaria
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Critical Care
Compendium
Chris is an Intensivist and ECMO specialist at the Alfred ICU in Melbourne. He is also a Clinical Adjunct Associate Professor at Monash University. He is a co-founder of the Australia and New Zealand Clinician Educator Network (ANZCEN) and is the Lead for the ANZCEN Clinician Educator Incubator programme. He is on the Board of Directors for the Intensive Care Foundation and is a First Part Examiner for the College of Intensive Care Medicine. He is an internationally recognised Clinician Educator with a passion for helping clinicians learn and for improving the clinical performance of individuals and collectives.
After finishing his medical degree at the University of Auckland, he continued post-graduate training in New Zealand as well as Australia’s Northern Territory, Perth and Melbourne. He has completed fellowship training in both intensive care medicine and emergency medicine, as well as post-graduate training in biochemistry, clinical toxicology, clinical epidemiology, and health professional education.
He is actively involved in in using translational simulation to improve patient care and the design of processes and systems at Alfred Health. He coordinates the Alfred ICU’s education and simulation programmes and runs the unit’s education website, INTENSIVE. He created the ‘Critically Ill Airway’ course and teaches on numerous courses around the world. He is one of the founders of the FOAM movement (Free Open-Access Medical education) and is co-creator of litfl.com, the RAGE podcast, the Resuscitology course, and the SMACC conference.
His one great achievement is being the father of three amazing children.
On Twitter, he is @precordialthump.
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