There are various causes of abdominal pain. They range from common stomach upsets caused by things you eat, gastroenteritis, acid reflux, etc., to gallbladder infections, ruptured ulcers, appendicitis, and many other potentially life-threatening conditions. They range from more immediate, life-threatening causes. So how do you know when to go to the emergency room (ER)?
Taylor Delgado, MD, an emergency medicine physician and adjunct professor at the University of Utah Health, says the challenge with abdominal pain is that it can have so many causes. Instead, she says it’s best to identify “red flag” symptoms that indicate a more serious underlying cause of your pain. The questions she asks are:
- Is the pain so severe that it interferes with your daily life?
- Do you have pain associated with intractable vomiting or intolerance of liquids?
- Are you constipated or unable to defecate and experience severe pain?
- Have you had abdominal surgery in the past?
- Do I have abdominal pain that seems similar to the pain I’ve had in the past, but is different this time? Is it worse, or is the vomiting different?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, an ER visit is warranted.
Delgado said that in the ER, doctors and medical professionals are simultaneously diagnosing a patient’s condition and treating their symptoms. “Our job is to collect a lot of information and put it together into a complete clinical picture for this patient to determine the best course of treatment,” she says.