It hurts when you press just below your belly button

The pain when pressing the area just below the navel is consistent with the characteristics of enteritis, which is a common gastrointestinal disease. However, pain alone cannot determine that you have enteritis. The best way is to first understand the disease, and then make a comprehensive judgment based on your other symptoms, so that you can reach a preliminary conclusion. Let’s take a look at the situation of enteritis.

enteritis

Clinical manifestations 1. The incidence of acute enteritis in China is higher in summer and autumn, with no gender difference. The general incubation period is 12 to 36 hours. Nausea, vomiting and diarrhea are the main symptoms of acute enteritis. 2. The clinical manifestations of chronic enteritis are long-term, chronic or recurrent abdominal pain, diarrhea and indigestion. In severe cases, there may be mucus or watery stools. The severity of diarrhea varies. In mild cases, patients may have bowel movements 3 to 4 times a day, or diarrhea and constipation may occur alternately; in severe cases, patients may have bowel movements every 1 to 2 hours, and may even suffer from fecal incontinence. Some patients may have nocturnal diarrhea and/or postprandial diarrhea. When the rectum is severely affected, a feeling of tenesmus may occur. The feces are mostly paste-like, mixed with a large amount of mucus, and often contain pus and blood. Some patients have fresh blood in their stools, and the lesions are limited to the rectum, which is called hemorrhagic proctitis. The blood or stool is discharged separately, or attached to the surface of normal or dry stool, which is often mistaken for hemorrhoidal bleeding. Patients with proctitis often have mucus and blood in their stools, and may even suffer from fecal incontinence. If the lesions extend above the rectum, blood is often mixed with the stool or bloody diarrhea occurs. Physical examination may reveal mild tenderness around the umbilicus or lower abdomen, hyperactive bowel sounds, and rectal prolapse.

Treatment 1. Pathogen treatment Viral enteritis generally does not require pathogen treatment and can heal on its own. For bacterial enteritis, it is best to select antibiotics based on the results of bacterial drug sensitivity tests. When suffering from bacillary dysentery, because Shigella dysenteriae is widely resistant to commonly used antibiotics, the generally used drugs are co-trimoxazole (cotrimoxazole), pipemidic acid, gentamicin, amikacin, etc. Campylobacter jejuni enteritis can be treated with erythromycin, gentamicin, chloramphenicol, etc. Yersinia enterocolitica enteritis is generally treated with gentamicin, kanamycin, co-sulfamethoxazole, tetracycline, chloramphenicol, etc. Patients with mild Salmonella enteritis may not need antibiotics, while patients with severe cases can use chloramphenicol or trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole. Invasive Escherichia coli enteritis can be treated with neomycin, colistin and gentamicin with good results. Amebic dysentery, enteritis caused by Giardia lamblia, and Trichomonas can be treated with metronidazole (Flagyl). Schistosomiasis can be treated with praziquantel. Oral nystatin is effective in treating Candida albicans enteritis. Patients with systemic fungal infection need to be treated with amphotericin B.