Chronic abdominal wall pain: prevalence in out-patients.

BACKGROUND Chronic abdominal wall pain (CAWP) is a frequent and confusing pain. It often leads to many diagnostic tests and sometimes some surgeries before an accurate diagnosis is achieved. Numerus had reported that patients with pain in abdominal wall are frequently treated like some one who is suffering from visceral pain. METHODS This was a cross-sectional study that is done in Isfahan in a governmental clinic. In this epidemiological study we were evaluating the prevalence of chronic abdominal wall pain. The region of the pain, patient's sex, patient's age and their associated problems such as psychiatric disorders, obesity, IBS, functional bloating has been checked in patients. RESULTS Thirty patients with abdominal pain originating from the abdominal wall were observed between 998 patients in a period of 3 months (3% of patients who were referred to gastroenterologist used to have CAWP). CONCLUSION There are many reasons for chronic abdominal wall pain such as nerve entrapment or lesions of surgeries. Some times this problem makes patients to push the painful area and some times we could clearly see the hematoma in that region. For treating CAWP we can use a simple method and its injection. Pain could easily be relieved after one or more that one injection.