Clinical features of acute and chronic abdominal pain in children admitted to gastroenterology unit

Abstract

Abstract Background The incidence of abdominal pain in children has been gradually rising. The study aimed to investigate the clinical characteristics of hospitalized children with abdominal pain for making the accurate diagnosis and treatment. Methods This study collected the clinical data from a pediatric institution between January 2023 and January 2026. The data primarily included gender, age, body mass index (BMI), intensity, duration of pain, site of pain, common associated symptoms, diagnoses and surgical interventions. Results A total of 1025 patients presenting with abdominal pain were analyzed. Among them, there were 625 boys (60.98%) and 400 girls (39.02%), with a median age of this cohort was 8.0 years (5.00, 11.00). The primary diagnoses were chronic gastritis ( n = 458, 44.68%), acute gastroenteritis ( n = 321, 31.32%), Henoch-Schönlein purpura (HSP) ( n = 100, 9.76%), and chronic enteritis ( n = 44, 4.29%). Most patients (76.39%) had acute pain, and the median duration of pain was 2 months (0.1, 10.00). The pain in most patients localized in the periumbilical region (54.63%). In addition, The most common concomitant symptoms were vomiting (53.46%), diarrhea (22.63%), and fever (22.44%). 668 (65.17%) patients received gastrointestinal endoscope examination. Moreover, subgroup analyses were conducted based on disease types, intensity, gender and age. Statistical differences were found in some variables including age, gender, intensity, duration of pain, site of pain and concomitant symptoms ( P < 0.05). Conclusion Chronic gastritis was the most common disease in children, followed by acute gastroenteritis, HSP and chronic enteritis. Most children suffered from acute periumbilical pain, with vomiting as the most frequent concomitant symptom. Furthermore, significant differences were observed in some clinical characteristics of different subgroup analyses.