Why can diagnosis of the cause of abdominal pain be difficult?
Modern advances in technology have greatly improved the accuracy, speed, and ease of establishing the cause of abdominal pain, but significant challenges remain. There are many reasons why diagnosing the cause of abdominal pain can be difficult. They are: • Symptoms may be atypical. For example, the pain of appendicitis sometimes is located in the right upper abdomen, and the pain of diverticulitis is on the right side. Elderly patients and patients taking corticosteroids may have little or no pain and tenderness when there is inflammation, for example, with cholecystitis or diverticulitis. This occurs because corticosteroids reduce the inflammation. • Tests are not always abnormal. • Ultrasound examinations can miss gallstones, particularly small ones. • CT scans may fail to show pancreatic cancer, particularly small ones. • The KUB can miss the signs of intestinal obstruction or stomach perforation. • Ultrasounds and CT scans may fail to demonstrate appendicitis or even abscesses, pa
