Clínica del dolor abdominal crónico en niños atendidos en el Servicio de Gastropediatría del Hospital José Carrasco Arteaga, 2017

Abstract

Objective: To determine the main clinical characteristics of chronic abdominal pain in children treated at the Gastropediatric Service of the Hospital José Carrasco Arteaga during the year 2017. Method and materials: This was a descriptive qualitative study, included a sample of 107 patients with chronic abdominal pain between 4 to 15 years in period 2017, and who underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopy and biopsies. A form designed by the author was used, and through an interview with the child or his companion and endoscopic and anatomo-pathological reports, the information was collected; analyzed in software SPSS version 15 using for qualitative variables numbers and percentages, of the quantitative medians and interquartile ranges and for statistical association as Chi square. Results: A higher frequency of females was determined, with a median age of 12 years. Chronic abdominal pain occurred in 64.5% of the burning type, 52.3% of moderate intensity, and 87.9% with intermittent character. Alterations were reported in the most of cases, in 94% of endoscopic findings and 97% of histopathological findings, of which the most frequent was superficial chronic gastritis. In addition, infection by Helicobacter pylori was corroborated in 50.47% of the cases, which was statistically significant with nodular gastritis and the presence of and of lymphoid follicles (p <0.05). Conclusions: The approach of a child with chronic abdominal pain should include a complete evaluation aimed at determining the etiology, which mostly corresponds to organic, including infection by Helicobacter pylori; therefore, functional chronic abdominal pain should be consider a diagnosis of exclusion.