Evaluation of demographical and etiological profile in children with chronic abdominal pain in a tertiary care centre of Bihar

Chronic abdominal pain is very common in paediatric age group. It is defined as Long-lasting intermittent or constant abdominal pain that is functional or organic chronic abdominal pain can be organic or nonorganic, depending on whether a specific aetiology is identified. So, it is important to understand demographical and etiological profile for proper management of this disease and reassure parents about outcome. There is no data from our region about common causes and its demographical profile. Therefore, this study was conducted

This study was carried out to identify the demographic profile and aetiology in children with chronic abdominal pain.

This prospective study was conducted at department of paediatrics, IGIMS Patna during the period from September 2015 to August 2017 among 54 children with history of chronic abdominal pain after following the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Collected data were statistically analyzed with the use of the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) program version 21

Out of 520 total 54(10.38%) children were coming with chronic abdominal pain of which majority subjects were female (55.5%). Urban were 62.96% and rest were rural (37.04%). The specific diagnosis pattern revealed that majority had Functional abdominal pain (44%) followed by Urinary tract infection (UTI) (19%), Peptic ulcer diseases (13%), Gastroesophageal reflux diseases (GERD) (11%), Abdominal tuberculosis (9%), Cholecystitis (2%) and Abdominal migraine (2%).

Chronic abdominal pain is common among children. Functional abdominal pain is the most common cause of recurrent abdominal pain. A uniform management protocol should be developed for proper investigations to minimize the cost and for proper use of drugs in order to help these children with chronic abdominal pain.