PEDIATRICS Vol. 56 No. 6 December 1975, pp. 1073-1074
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Abdominal Pain in Children Caused by Linea Alba Hernias

Robert H. Bugenstein M.D.1 and Clifford M. Phibbs Jr. MD1

1 Oxboro Clinic, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Children with chronic recurrent abdominal pain present a frequently encountered and often perplexing problem in differential diagnosis. Apley states that the incidence of this condition, based on his investigation of 1,000 unselected schoolchildren, was calculated to be 10.8% of all children; and in a large outpatient clinic, Conway found this condition in an estimated 10% of all pediatric patients. Organic causes of chronic recurrent abdominal pain occur with an estimated frequency varying from 5% to 20% of these afflicted children.

Since the great majority of children with this complaint seem to demonstrate no primary underlying organic cause, the assumptions can be made that either the examination failed to expose the somatic abnormality responsible for the pain or that these children's symptoms are from what is referred to as "functional," "idiopathic," or "emotional" origins.