Of course, in children who present or report abdominal pain, the abdomen must be thoroughly examined and included in the differential diagnoses. In the clinic, sonography of the abdomen is also always required to rule out severe pathology (e.g., even volvulus is often clinically deceptive). But the true diagnosis is often also outside the abdomen!

In young children, swelling of the abdominal lymph nodes regularly occurs in connection with infections at any focus. The resulting abdominal pain tempts a suspected abdominal diagnosis, which sometimes even results in non-indicated surgery (usually appendectomies).

Additional focus search

In children with abdominal pain, an additional focus search outside the abdomen, such as listening to the lungs and inspection of the tympanic membrane,is always essential.

However, the “co-swollen” abdominal lymph nodes can also cause an actual abdominal emergency, intestinal intussusception, usually at the ileocecal junction. In this case, parts of the intestine turn into each other and typically trigger abrupt onset of severe cramp-like pain. In addition, bloody diarrhea may occur. Spontaneous desvagination is also possible, but must not be waited for under any circumstances, because necrosis of the affected bowel segments may occur if left untreated. The diagnosis is made very quickly and reliably by sonography and can be treated in any pediatric clinic with radiologically performed desvagination by insufflation of the intestine with air or fluids.

In an emergency: safety in seconds

Should a child emergency occur, seconds are often critical. Then the pediatric emergency ruler PädNFL and the pediatric anesthesia ruler PädOP can become a life-saving aid. The rulers provide instant length-based weight estimation of the child. According to the standard weight determined in this way, the correct dosages of all emergency medications can be read directly from the rulers. – completely without accompanying booklet and without own calculation steps!
With the PädNFL you can

– Significantly reduce life-threatening medication errors in pediatric emergencies
– 9 out of 10 Avoid incorrect dosing*

Therefore, the principle of PädNFL is explicitly recommended in the guideline “Medication Safety in Pediatric Emergencies” and the ERC guidelines.