A sharp pain in the stomach: symptoms, first aid

Abdominal pain from time to time may experience many. Sometimes patients find it difficult to give a precise definition of the nature of the pain and localization. But some may say that I feel a sharp pain attacks in the stomach. However, to determine the true cause of the pain themselves they can not, and self-medication in this case is fraught with sad consequences.

Only the successful practitioner can determine why a stomach ache. To this end, he examines the patient, collects anamnesis, appoints various analyses, tests, instrumental studies and, based on all of this puts an accurate diagnosis and appoint adequate therapy.

External causes

Sharp stomach pain can appear even in a healthy person. They can trigger the following reasons:

  1. A lot of stress. Scientists say that stressful situations lead to poor circulation in the gastric mucosa. Patients complain of sharp pain in the upper abdomen and other abdominal disorders. On the background of the state, close to a nervous breakdown, can result in such diseases as nervous gastritis or nervous stomach.
  2. An improper diet. If the diet consists mainly of spicy, fatty, fried foods or fast food, even a healthy stomach eventually crashes. However, pain on the background of a broken food culture are often paroxysmal in nature. It is more suitable such a description is aching and sluggish for a long time.
  3. Food poisoning. Toxic substances can enter the body with the use of products that have ended a period of storage, or those that are carriers of harmful bacteria. In this case, it suffers from the mucosa of the digestive tract. A sharp epigastric pain may be accompanied by vomiting, diarrhea, headache, fever.
  4. Broken diet. For many people, the food culture is suffering not only in the quality of food, but also with its amount and time of use. Large breaks between main meals, eating large amounts of food on an empty stomach or at night, anorexia, bulimia – all of which can cause sharp pain in the upper abdomen.
  5. Increased physical load. Sports training can aggravate the hidden disease in the gastrointestinal tract. This may be due to an increase in pressure inside the abdomen during strength training and redistribution of blood flow.
  6. Injury. Many patients associate the beginning of the pain with recently received a closed injury of the abdomen.
  7. Medication. If the person is a long time to take drugs that can irritate the gastric mucosa, epigastric pain he provided.

Quite often, stomach pain is not the only symptom. Patients usually also say that they experience dyspepsia (constipation, diarrhea, flatulence, heartburn).

Disease

To stomach ache bouts against the backdrop of a number of diseases:

  1. Peptic ulcer disease. This pathology can affect the stomach or the duodenum. In different patients the clinical picture may differ. Someone complains that the pain attacks occur after a meal, others on an empty stomach or at night. The symptoms usually intensifies after the consumption of junk foods or after overeating. In addition, patients note that their condition worsens in spring or autumn.
  2. Pyloric stenosis. When peptic ulcer disease complicated by narrowing of the lumen in the pylorus, the stomach problematic food passes into the intestine. Against this background, patients can experience a cramping pain, heaviness and bursting in the abdominal area. Condition is a bit easier carried out after vomiting.
  3. Perforated ulcer. In this pathology in the epigastric region begins suddenly cut. Some patients describe the pain as stabbing, stomach muscles tense, the General condition is deteriorating. Patients sometimes lose consciousness. If no action is taken, then begins the purulent inflammation of the peritoneum, which can lead to death.
  4. The false "acute abdomen". It is a complex of symptoms that are very similar to abdominal pathology, but caused by diseases of organs located outside the abdominal cavity. This syndrome often provoke inflammation of the lungs, the defeat pleura and aperture, myocardial infarction, fractures of the ribs and sternum, due to the fact that these body parts have a common nervous control of the circulation.
  5. Acute or chronic pancreatitis. The onset is characterized by pain in the abdominal area. Most often it is surrounding the character, as well as accompanied, by nausea, vomiting, flatulence. In some cases, on the background of severe pain syndrome patients even lose consciousness. An attack may last from 2-3 hours to 1-2 days.
  6. Polyps of the stomach. This pathology hidden flows, with pronounced symptoms is not a long time. Severe pain, usually occur when you convert from polyp to malignancy. Although from time to time the polyps become inflamed and then the patient may experience dull, aching pain. A sudden attack can occur when the infringement of a polyp on a long stalk mobile.
  7. Cancer of the stomach. Cancer, as a rule, is accompanied not onlythe sharp pain, but also in the destruction of tumor vessels appear gastrointestinal bleeding, difficulty swallowing, feeling of full stomach when a small amount of food intake, rapid weight loss, persistent fever.

Periodic or persistent stomach pain forced to seek help to a specialist for diagnosis. And this is the right way, because the self is very easy to confuse a gastric pain with others, especially if they are sharp or floating.

First aid

When a person is faced with the attacks of pain, the first thing he asks the question – what to do? If the patient is faced with a novel situation, it is wise to call an ambulanceto specialists able to provide expert first aid. Of course, this does not apply to those who already knows the diagnosis, the symptoms were not watching anything new, and also knows how to self help yourself.

In other cases, you should follow these rules:

  1. Drugs from the group of analgesics prior to the arrival of the ambulance can not be accepted. Of course they can temporarily improve the patient's condition, but it will lubricate the symptoms and doctors will then be more difficult to make a correct diagnosis.
  2. Use of warmers is quite contradictory. Gastritis a warm heating pad is a godsend, and in other cases, it may cause peritonitis. But the bottle with ice is appropriate in many cases.
  3. To swallow a piece of ice. A load of crap on the background of stress is a practical tool. But the unknown causes of pain from such a method should be abandoned.
  4. If you can not take a horizontal position, you should at least sit down and try to relax the muscles of the abdomen. All movements should be done gradually and not to panic.
  5. Arrange the snacks and drink the liquid before the inspection by a specialist is impossible. This can worsen the condition and prevent further medical procedures.

If you agree, then, most likely, a serious cause for concern do not exist. But if the pain persists for 2 hours and at the first aid condition is not alleviated, it can be specified on the dynamic pathology of internal organs.

Treatment

Wrestling with bouts of stomach pain begins with identification of the factors that triggered this condition. A thorough examination is diagnosed and assigned the appropriate treatment. If the pain appeared suddenly, man had never examined the state of the gastrointestinal tract, it is necessary to consult a doctor.

Starting from diagnosis, will be assigned to medicines, physiotherapy and dietetics. The range of products to improve functioning of the stomach and the entire digestive tract is huge. As a rule, most medical schemes are basically medications designed to eliminate pathogens, as well as the normalization of level of acidity. Treatment should be individualized for each patient.

Key in the normalization of the gastrointestinal tract is the revision of the principles of nutrition. This should be done even if the stomach pains are episodic. Doctors recommend to adopt a healthy diet:

  1. To give preference to dairy products and lean meat (boiled, stewed, baked).
  2. Excluded from the diet foods that can irritated stomach lining and cause it to spasm, acute, pickled, salted, smoked, acidic. These dishes should be as less as possible in the diet, even in healthy people.
  3. Meals should be frequent, but fractional. Night eating is inappropriate.
  4. During meals or immediately after should not be consumed liquid. It is better to drink a glass of pure water 30 minutes before eating and an hour after.

If stomach pain are rare and easy to pass, some time the patient can not afford to go to a medical facility for help. But if these attacks become frequent and the condition is not so easy to facilitate, to postpone the visit to the doctor is not necessary. The danger lies in the fact that pain is not always caused minor problems with the stomach, and can indicate very serious diseases of other organs. Without a comprehensive examination in this case is not necessary.