Abdominal Pain Specialist

What are the types of abdominal pain?

Abdominal pain is pain you feel between your chest and pelvic region. The seriousness of the pain isn’t always a good indicator of the seriousness of your condition. For example, you may experience severe pain with a stomach virus, but feel mild pain or no pain at all with potentially fatal conditions like colon cancer or early appendicitis.

Abdominal pain is categorized as:

• General pain: pain you feel in more than half of your belly, typically due to indigestion, a stomach virus, or gas.
• Localized pain: pain isolated to one area of your abdomen, most likely a symptom of a problem with your appendix, gallbladder, or stomach.
• Cramplike pain: pain that’s usually due to gas and bloating, and is often followed by diarrhea, but isn’t usually a sign of anything serious
• Colicky pain: pain that comes in waves and may be due to kidney stones or gallstones

If your pain is accompanied by certain warning signs, you should contact Capitol Gastro right away. These signs include:

• Fever
• Diarrhea
• Persistent constipation
• Blood in your stool
• Persistent nausea or vomiting
• Vomiting blood
• Severe tenderness in your belly
• Abdominal swelling

Yellowish discoloration of your skin is another reason to promptly see a doctor.

How is abdominal pain diagnosed?

Your doctor at Capitol Gastro takes a complete medical history and asks about the nature of your abdominal pain. You’ll want to describe whether it’s:

• Dull
• Sharp
• Cramping
• Twisting
• Burning
• Tearing
• Penetrating

Your doctor performs a physical exam, looking for areas of tenderness, the presence or absence of bowel sounds, abdominal swelling, and enlarged organs, among other symptoms.

To help confirm your diagnosis, you may need screening and imaging tests, including:

• Blood tests
• Urine or stool tests
• X-rays
• CT scan

Your doctor sometimes recommends procedures, such as an endoscopy or capsule endoscopy, which use a tubelike instrument or tiny camera-equipped capsule to see inside your digestive tract. Both procedures are available at Capitol Gastro.

How is abdominal pain treated?

Your doctor tailors your treatment plan to your condition. For example, if your abdominal pain is due to ulcers, they prescribe medications to reduce inflammation and stomach acid. In other cases, they treat the underlying condition causing your abdominal pain.

You don’t need to suffer from abdominal pain when expert diagnosis and treatment are available. Call Capitol Gastro today or schedule a consultation online.