Left Side Abdominal Pain
Left side abdominal pain is often more common in women and young adults, as a cause of abdominal pain. The causes of a left sided abdominal pain are legion and runs the gamut from diverticulitis, irritable bowel syndrome, kidney infections, kidney stone, bowel problems, like diverticulitis, and constipation, to pain arising from muscles and skin over the left side of the abdomen.
Left side abdominal pain is defined as pain occurring in the abdomen, to the left of an imaginary straight line drawn from the center of just under chest through the umbilicus or belly button, down to the top of the genitalia.
Any disease process affecting organs or structures on the left side of the abdomen can cause pain there. Left side abdominal pain can also result from organs or structures far removed from the abdomen or near it, or even from pain spreading from other part of the abdomen.
It is worth remembering that causes of central abdominal pain or even right side abdominal pain can over lap and cause pain on the left side of the abdomen. As in other parts of the body, pain on the left abdomen can occur from disease affecting the following organs found there. Organs and structures found in the left side of the abdomen are: - Left edge of the Liver
- The Spleen
- Body and Tail of the Pancreas
- The Stomach
- Left half of the Transverse Colon or large intestine
- The Descending Colon
- Sigmoid Colon
- Left Adrenal gland
- Left Kidney
- Left Ureter
- Left Ovary in women
- Left Fallopian tube in women
- Blood vessels on the left side of the abdomen including the aorta
- Muscles of the wall of the left side of the abdomen
- Nerves on the left side of the abdomen
- Skin covering the left side of the abdomen.
Structures not found on the abdomen that could still cause pain on the left side of the abdomen include: - Lower part of the Left Lung
- Left half of the diaphragm
- The heart
In a few individuals, their appendix, and all other structures found normally on the right side of the body could be on the left, in a medical condition called Situs Invertus. In those individuals, causes of left sided abdominal pain are actually those causing right side abdominal pain in normal individuals. Here, we will concentrate on causes of left sided abdominal pain in normal setting. As states above, common causes of left side abdominal pain includes:- Heartburns
- Gastritis
- Stomach ulcer
- Pancreatitis
- Stomach tumour
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Diverticulitis
- Crohns disease
- Ulcerative colitis
- Polycystic ovarian syndrome - PCOS
- Twisted or Ruptured ovarian cyst
- Ectopic pregnancy
- Pelvic Inflammatory Disease - PID
- Endometrosis
- Coelic disease
- Constipation
- Bowel tumour
- Pulmoanry embolism - blood clots in the lungs
- Hereditary Angioedema
- Sickle Cell Disease
- Porphyria
- ... the list goes on and on like that of causes of abdominal pain.
For ease of diagnosis, and to be able to understand the possible cause of left side abdominal pain in your case, causes of abdominal pain in this region is divided into causes of upper left side abdominal pain, if the abdominal pain is felt on the left side of the abdomen above the level of the umbilicus, and a lower left side abdominal pain if the pain occurs on the left side of the abdomen below the level of the umbilicus or belly button.
Follow on this to read about possible causes discussed. You can use the search link provided below to search this site or the web generally for any of the above listed causes not discussed here.
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