Abdominal Swelling: Or something else? Differential Diagnosis

Endocrine, nutritional, and metabolic diseases (E00-E90).

Cardiovascular system (I00-I99)

  • Aortic aneurysm – wall bulge of the aorta.

Infectious and parasitic diseases (A00-B99).

  • Echinococcosis – infectious disease caused by the parasites Echinococcus multilocularis (fox tapeworm) and Echinococcus granulosus (dog tapeworm).

Liver, gallbladder, and bile ducts – Pancreas (pancreas) (K70-K77; K80-K87).

  • Gallbladder disease: cholelithiasis (gallstones).
  • Liver cyst
  • Pancreatic cyst

Mouth, esophagus (food pipe), stomach and intestines (K00-K67; K90-K93).

  • Ileus (intestinal obstruction)
  • Constipation (constipation)
  • Irritable bowel syndrome (synonym: irritable colon).
  • Volvulus – rotation of a section of the digestive tract about its mesenteric axis; symptoms: abdominal swelling that develops over two or three days; typical complications include mechanical ileus (intestinal obstruction) or intestinal gangrene (death of a section of the intestine due to inadequate oxygenation)

Neoplasms – tumor diseases (C00-D48).

  • Colon carcinoma (cancer of the large intestine)
  • Gastric carcinoma (stomach cancer)
  • Neoplasms, unspecified
  • Neuroblastoma – second most common malignant neoplasm (malignant neoplasm) of the child behind acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).
  • Renal carcinoma (kidney cancer)
  • Ovarian carcinoma (ovarian cancer)
  • Pancreatic carcinoma (pancreatic cancer)

Pregnancy, childbirth, and puerperium (O00-O99).

  • Pregnancy

Symptoms and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings not elsewhere classified (R00-R99)

  • Ascites (abdominal dropsy); symptoms: flaring flanks (in the supine position), umbilicus obliterated, umbilical hernia (scar hernia), dyspnea (shortness of breath); differentiation from abdominal swelling is difficult, especially in obesity
  • Hepatomegaly, unspecified
  • Lymphadenopathy (lymph node enlargement), paraaortic
  • Meteorism (air in the colon / large intestine).
  • Splenomegaly (enlargement of the spleen), unspecified.

Genitourinary system (kidneys, urinary tract – reproductive organs) (N00-N99).

  • Hydronephrosis (congestive kidney).
  • Renal cysts
  • Uterus myomatosus – benign muscular growths of the uterine wall.
  • Enlarged urinary bladder, unspecified
  • Cyst(s) on the ovary (ovary)