Abdominal pain is a pain felt anywhere between the chest and the groin region. It is often misquoted as a stomach pain or pain in the belly region. Generally, people do not pay much attention to this pain until it becomes unbearably severe. Abdominal pain is a passing phase pain and should not be paid much attention to it, this is the general idea among people. People resort to take some local pain reliever medication and then just forget about it.

But in reality, it is just not so. Abdominal pain can be because of many reasons and some of them may be serious enough to cause concern and seek expert medical advice. Pain originating from some other part of the body may also be misunderstood as abdominal pain and ignored considering it as a trifle matter. Pain may originate even from outside the digestive system and feel like abdominal pain.

1. Abdominal Pain – the reality
Abdominal pain is not just a pain in stomach. It may be anywhere in the belly region, between the ribs and the pelvis. So, abdominal pain may be pain in any other organs rather than the stomach.

Abdomen contains many organs. It contains the stomach, the liver, the gall bladder, the pancreas, the small and the large intestine. All these organs form the digestive system.

Pain can also be from the abdominal wall. It is made of skin and muscles and forms the outer shell of the abdomen. Pain in this region can often be misleading. Pain that appears to be in the stomach may be coming from somewhere else, such as from the chest, pelvic region or from back.

Abdominal pain can be in many forms and may feel differently to different people. It may feel mild to severe, dull to sharp, as cramps or as in colicky pain, or like burning or like aches. The pain may be constant or it may be intermittent, or it may be confined to a particular area or feel like spread all over the belly region.

Abdominal pain is experienced by almost everybody at some point of time.But most of the time the pain is resolved by itself and is not considered serious. But abdominal pain can be a sign of a serious painful emergency and should be treated like that only.

2. Types of abdominal pain : Abdomen is home to many organs. It is needed to narrow down the type of pain the patient is suffering from. The gastroenterologist divides the abdomen into four parts. These parts are:

Location of the pain is very important in diagnosing the ailment the patient is suffering from. It tells the doctor of the organs those may be involved in the pain factor. Pain in the upper side may tell about involvement of liver or gall bladder.

The type of pain and its frequency is very important to the doctor. It helps the doctor to narrow down his diagnosis to limited number of organs.

3.The reasons of pain in abdomen: The abdomen contains many organs and the pain in abdomen may be from many probable reasons. The pain may be due to indigestion, some injury in that part, some infection or may be due to some disease. The pain may be
from inside an organ or may be from the outer shell wall muscles or skin tissues. The pain may also originate from an organ near to the location of the pain. The doctor decides the reason with many questions he asks the patient. The seriousness of the disease can never be predicted by the intensity of the pain and requires some specialised investigations pathologically or radiologically.

The most common reasons for abdominal pain are digestive issues, such as indigestion, gas and gas pain, constipation, diarrhoea, allergy of some food, intolerance of some food material, or food poisoning.Inflammation is another major cause of abdominal pain. These may be Peptic Ulcer Disease, viral gastroenteritis or stomach flu, Chronic acid reflux or GERD, Urinary Tract Infections or UTI.

Females may experience abdominal pain as their menstrual cramps or Ovulation pain.

But sometimes the abdominal pain indicates to a more serious problem. If the pain is in the right upper side, the liver, gall bladder or bile ducts may be affected. Right kidney is also in the same area and part of small and large
intestine also passes through that area. It may indicate Hepatitis, Gallstone, Cholecystitis, cancer in the bile duct cancer in gall bladder or in the liver. It may indicate Kidney infection, stone in the kidney, duodenal ulcer or obstruction in the large bowel.

Similarly pain in different parts of abdomen may indicate Pancreatitis, Pancreatic Cancer, Enlarged spleen, gastritis, ulcer in the stomach, Bile reflux, Stomach Cancer, Infection in the kidney of that part, or stone in Kidney.

It may also indicate towards Irritable bowel Syndrome, Functional Dyspepsia, Inflammatory bowel diseases, obstruction in large or small bowel, cancer in small intestine or in colon, Hernia, Mesenteric Lymphadenitis, Stone in Kidney etc.

There are so many other problems that may be indicated by abdominal pain. Only a trained and specialist gastroenterologist can correctly diagnose it.

4. Role of a Gastroenterologist in Abdominal Pain: A gastroenterologist is a specialist who has all the knowledge and expertise
to correctly diagnose the reason of abdominal pain and provide the correct treatment to the patient.

Dr. Amit Bundiwal is the super specialist in gastro enterology. He is in Indore and has a very advance clinic in gastroenterology, liver, and Pancreas treatment. He is the right doctor to see if anyone complains about Pain in abdomen.