Misdiagnosis of Gastroenteritis
Alternative diagnoses list for Gastroenteritis:
For a diagnosis of Gastroenteritis,
the following list of conditions
have been mentioned in sources
as possible alternative diagnoses
to consider during the diagnostic process for Gastroenteritis:
Diseases for which Gastroenteritis may be an alternative diagnosis
The other diseases for which Gastroenteritis
is listed as a possible alternative
diagnosis in their lists include:
Gastroenteritis: Hidden Causes Misdiagnosed?
Causes of Gastroenteritis may include these medical conditions:
Gastroenteritis Diagnosis: Book Excerpts
Gastroenteritis: Undiagnosed Conditions
Commonly undiagnosed conditions in related areas may include:
Common Misdiagnoses and Gastroenteritis
Undiagnosed acute appendicitis deadly in children: It is a sad reality that a child with acute appendicitis
has a high likelihood of misdiagnosis.
This misdiagnosis is a well-known cause of death, and indeed of malpractice lawsuits, in the medical industry.
That it is often overlooks is somewhat understandable.
Compared to other causes of abdominal pain, it is less common than simple explanations like gastroenteritis
or food poisoning.
The hallmark symptom of appendicitis, abominal pain located right at the navel, is also the way that
young children report almost any type of abdominal discomfort.
See the introduction to appendicitis and misdiagnosis of appendicitis.
Chronic digestive conditions often misdiagnosed: When diagnosing chronic symptoms
of the digestive tract, there are a variety of conditions that may be misdiagnosed.
The best known, irritable bowel syndrome, is over-diagnosed, whereas other
causes that are less known may be overlooked or misdiagnosed: celiac disease,
Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis (both are called inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)),
diabetic gastroparesis, diabetic diarrhea.
Other possibilities include giardia, colon cancer, or other chronic infections.
Intestinal bacteria disorder may be hidden cause: One of the lesser known causes of diarrhea
is an imbalance of bacterial in the gut, sometimes called intestinal imbalance.
The digestive system contains a variety of "good" bacteria that aid digestion,
and they can decline for various reasons,
leading to digestive symptoms such as diarrhea.
The main treatment is to eat foods containing probiotics, typically yoghurt cultures.
See intestinal imbalance and probiotics.
Antibiotics often causes diarrhea: The use of antibiotics are very likely
to cause some level of diarrhea in patients.
The reason is that antibiotics kill off not only "bad" bacteria,
but can also kill the "good" bacteria in the gut.
This leads to "digestive imbalance" where there are too few remaining "good"
bacteria in the digestive system.
The treatment is typically to use "probiotics", such as by eating yoghurt cultures
containing more of the good bacteria.
See digestive imbalance and probiotics.
Food poisoning may actually be an infectious disease: Many people who come down
with "stomach symptoms" like diarrhea assume that it's "something I ate" (i.e. food poisoning).
In fact, it's more likely to be an infectious diarrheal illness (i.e. infectious diarrhea), that has been caught
from another person.
Such conditions may be transmitted via the fecal-oral route.
Mesenteric adenitis misdiagnosed as appendicitis in children: Because appendicitis is one of the
more feared conditions for a child with abdominal pain, it can be over-diagnosed
(it can, of course, also fail to be diagnosed with fatal effect).
One of the most common misdiagnosed is for children with mesenteric adenitis
to be misdiagnosed as appendicitis.
Fortunately, thus misdiagnosis is usually less serious than the reverse failure to diagnose appendicitis.
Celiac disease often fails to be diagnosed cause of chronic digestive symptoms: One of the most common chronic digestive
conditions is celiac disease, a malabsorption disorder with a variety of symptoms (see symptoms of
celiac disease). A variety of other chronic digestive disorders tend to be diagnosed
rather than this condition.
See introduction to celiac disease or misdiagnosis of celiac disease.
Chronic digestive diseases hard to diagnose: There is an inherent
difficulty in diagnosing the various types of chronic digestive diseases.
Some of the better known possibilities are peptic ulcer, colon cancer, irritable bowel syndrome, or GERD.
Other sometimes overlooked possibilities include Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, chronic appendicitis,
Celiac disease, Carcinoid syndrome, gastroparesis, and others. See all types of chronic digestive diseases.
Not always a case of appendicitis: Pain in the right lower quadrant of the abdomen leads to numerous differential diagnoses in the mind of the doctor.Not all cases of right sided abdominal pain are acute appendicitis.Misdiagnosis of an acute appendicitis leads to unnecessary surgery. A good clinical history must be taken to rule out various other conditions such as gastroenteritis,right renal colic,biliary colic,Meckel's diverticulum etc. Some of the symptoms that need to be looked into include moderate to severe abdominal pain,fever,nausea and vomiting.The intensity and nature of pain must be assessed along with the presence of fever .Fever maybe unlikely in a case of renal colic unless associated with infection.Accurate judgement can be made using investigative modalities such as CT scan and ultrasound.
Gastroenteritis: Rare Types
Rare types of medical disorders and diseases in related medical areas:
Medical news summaries about misdiagnosis of Gastroenteritis:
The following medical news items
are relevant to misdiagnosis of Gastroenteritis:
General Misdiagnosis Articles
Read these general articles with an overview of misdiagnosis issues.
About misdiagnosis:
When checking for a misdiagnosis of Gastroenteritis
or confirming a diagnosis of Gastroenteritis,
it is useful to consider what other
medical conditions might be possible misdiagnoses or other alternative
conditions relevant to diagnosis.
These alternate diagnoses of Gastroenteritis may already have
been considered by your doctor or may need to be considered as possible
alternative diagnoses or candidates for misdiagnosis of Gastroenteritis.
For a general overview of misdiagnosis issues for all diseases,
see Overview of Misdiagnosis.
It's inevitable that at some point in your child's life he or she will suffer vomiting and diarrhea. Most often they are nothing to get...
Diagnosing irritable bowel syndrome today is often simpler than it has been in the past. Doctors used to focus on ruling out other diseases and...
Some people with vague digestive symptoms needlessly suffer in silence believing there is no treatment. Abdominal discomfort, bloating, and either...
Pain and bowel irregularities caused by irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) can make a marked impact on day-to-day living. Abdominal discomfort, bloating,...
See full list of 5 related videos
» Next page: Undiagnosed Gastroenteritis
Rate This Website
What do you think about the features of this website?
Take our user survey and have your say:
Website User Survey
Medical Tools & Articles:
Next articles:
Tools & Services:
Medical Articles:
Forums & Message Boards
- Ask or answer a question at the Boards:
