Causes of left lower quadrant abdominal pain

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Mugilan Poongkunran M.B.B.S [2]

Overview

Pain in the lower left side of the abdomen is often related to the digestive tract, urinary tract, or reproductive organs. Severe pain can be a symptom of inflammation of the bowel or bowel obstruction and in women it can result from twisting of an ovary (ovarian torsion), rupture of an ovarian cyst, ectopic pregnancy, or pelvic inflammatory disease. Men may experience severe left lower quadrant pain from testicular torsion or injury. Mild to moderate pain is usually due to indigestion, inflammation or from menstrual cramps in women.

Causes

Life Threatening Causes

Life-threatening causes include conditions which may result in death or permanent disability within 24 hours if left untreated.

Causes of left lower quadrant abdominal pain developed by WikiDoc.org

Common Causes

Causes of left lower quadrant abdominal pain developed by WikiDoc.org

Causes by Organ System

Cardiovascular	Abdominal aortic aneurysm rupture, ischemic colitis, malignant hypertension, mesenteric artery ischemia, rheumatoid vasculitis, systemic vasculitis
Chemical/Poisoning	Ethylene glycol poisoning, food poisoning, heavy metal poisoning, methanol, organophosphate poisoning
Dental	No underlying causes
Dermatologic	Scarlet fever, shingles
Drug Side Effect	Statins, steroid abuse, thrombolytic therapy, vitamin D toxicity
Ear Nose Throat	No underlying causes
Endocrine	Carcinoid, diabetic ketoacidosis
Environmental	Organophosphate poisoning
Gastroenterologic	Abdominal compartment syndrome, acute diverticulitis, chronic constipation, collagenous colitis, colon cancer, colonic lymphoma, Crohn’s disease, diverticular abscess, eosinophilic gastroenteritis, familial adenomatous polyposis, fecal impaction, gastroenteritis, hepatorenal syndrome, inguinal hernia, internal hernia, intestinal pseudo-obstruction, intussusception, irritable bowel syndrome, ischemic colitis, large bowel obstruction, malignant peritoneal mesothelioma, mesentric lymphadenitis, omental cyst, pelvic abscess, perforated gastric ulcer, perianal abscess, peritonitis, porphyria, proctalgia fugax, rectal abscess, rectal injury, rectal ulcer, small bowel adhesions, small bowel obstruction, strangulation of hernia, ulcerative colitis, visceral hamartoma, visceral hemangioma, volvulus, wandering spleen syndrome
Genetic	Colon atresia, familial adenomatous polyposis, porphyria, Von Hippel-Lindau disease
Hematologic	Lymphoma, porphyria
Iatrogenic	Colonic surgery, colonoscopy, hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, intra abdominal adhesions, percutaneous abdominal biopsy, peritoneal dialysis, radiation therapy, referred pain
Infectious Disease	Bacteroides, chlamydia, cystitis, gardnerella vaginalis, gastroenteritis, gonorrhea, HIV, miliary tuberculosis, mumps, pelvic inflammatory disease, peritonitis, psoas abscess, seminal vesiculitis, salpingitis, septic arthritis, shingles, transient synovitis, tuboovarian abscess
Musculoskeletal/Orthopedic	Hip dislocation, polymyositis, psoas abscess, septic arthritis, transient synovitis
Neurologic	No underlying causes
Nutritional/Metabolic	No underlying causes
Obstetric/Gynecologic	Abortion, bacterial vaginosis, bacteroides, broad ligament neoplasms, child birth, chlamydia, corpus luteum of pregnancy, cystitis, dysmenorrhoea, eclampsia, ectopic pregnancy, endometriosis, endometritis, fallopian tubal carcinoma, gardnerella vaginalis, gestational trophoblastic disease, gonorrhea, hydatid cyst of morgagni, infarction or torsion of uterine leiomyoma, intra-uterine device, luteoma, mittelschmerz, ovarian cancer, ovarian cyst, ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, ovarian metastasis, ovarian torsion, paramesonephric cysts, pelvic inflammatory disease, polycystic ovary syndrome, Reiter’s syndrome, salpingitis, theca lutein cysts, uterine fibroids, uterine torsion
Oncologic	Colon cancer, colonic lymphoma, familial adenomatous polyposis, ovarian metastasis, ovarian cancer, tumor lysis syndrome, uterine fibroids, visceral hamartoma, visceral hemangioma, Von Hippel-Lindau disease
Ophthalmologic	No underlying causes
Overdose/Toxicity	Cocaine overdose, steroid abuse
Psychiatric	Intestinal pseudo-obstruction, irritable bowel syndrome
Pulmonary	No underlying causes
Renal/Electrolyte	Ureteral colic, urinary outflow obstruction, Von Hippel-Lindau disease
Rheumatology/Immunology/Allergy	Allergic gastroenteropathy, Crohn’s disease, food intolerance, Henoch-Schönlein purpura, rheumatoid vasculitis, scarlet fever, systemic lupus erythematosus, systemic vasculitis, ulcerative colitis
Sexual	Seminal vesiculitis, testicular torsion, torsion of epididymis
Trauma	Electrical burns, pelvic bone fractures
Urologic	Bladder distension
Miscellaneous	Chronic constipation, foreign body ingestion, idiopathic, inguinal lymphadenopathy, splenosis

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Causes in Alphabetical Order

Causes of Causes of left lower quadrant abdominal pain developed by WikiDoc.org, Copyleft 2013

Causes of left lower quadrant abdominal pain developed by WikiDoc.org

References

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Causes of left lower quadrant abdominal pain

Overview

Causes

Life Threatening Causes

Common Causes

Causes by Organ System

Causes in Alphabetical Order

References

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