Unilateral Abdominal Protrusion Developed in Diabetic Patient after Postherpetic Neuralgia / 대한통증학회지

There are many causes of chronic abdominal pain and abdominal protrusion. But, they are likely to be confused with diabetic thoracic polyradiculopathy. Differentiation between this self-limiting complication and abdominal herniation is important to avoid unnecessary procedure. We describe the case of 77-years-old man with 10 years history of non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus, who was suffering from postherpetic neuralgia for 10 months and presented with a abdominal segmental paresis and protrusion. The paraspinal electromyography showed bilateral lower thoracic radiculopathy.

Chronic Left Upper Quadrant Abdominal Pain Diagnosed as Diabetic Thoracic Polyradiculopathy: A case report

Diabetic thoracic polyradiculopathy is an unusual cause of severe, chronic abdominal pain in patient with diabetes mellitus of variable duration. The diagnosis can be made by careful history taking, physical examination and paraspinal and abdominal muscle electromyography. Since there are so many diseases that cause similar abdominal pain, it is hard to diagnose diabetic thoracic polyradiculopathy. A 41-year-old female patient with diabetes mellitus had been taken to the department of internal medicine due to unexplained chronic left upper quadrant abdominal pain. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, abdominal computed tomography, urologic and gynecologic examinations had been done but failed to find the cause of abdominal pain. We diagnosed chronic abdominal pain of the patient as diabetic thoracic polyradiculopathy confirmed by electromyography and report this case with a brief review of the related literatures.