Abstract Abdominal pain is one of the most common symptoms patients present in surgical outpatient department. It may be associated with other symptoms which sometime point towards a working diagnosis. But many a time because of the numerous intraabdominal structures it is not possible to arrive at a diagnosis. And particularly chronic abdominal pain is further difficult to diagnose. In such circumstances we need to investigate further and upper GI endoscopy has played a pivotal role in arriving at or excluding some diagnosis since its invention. Recent advances like chromo-endoscopy and narrow band imaging have expanded the applicability of UGI endoscopy both as therapeutic and diagnostic procedure. In our study we have attempted to evaluate the role of upper GI endoscopy in the diagnosis and treatment of chronic abdominal pain. Materials and Methods: after informed consent hundred patients were randomly selected from opd
and ipd basis and subjected for UGI endoscopy in MVJ medical college and research hospital for a period of one year from August 2016 to August 2018. The observations and results were analzed under different headings such as gender distribution, association with habits like nicotine consumption, role of helicobacter pylori. Results: detailed analysis of the results revealed that males are more affected than females and gastric and duodenal benign conditions constitute the majority of the causes for upper abdominal pain Smoking and alcohol consumption are the key risk factors and helicobacter p[ylori infection was uniformly found in all patients with duodenal ulcers and most of the patients with gastric ulcers. Conclusion: Even though associated symptoms along with pain abdomen point towards a provisional diagnosis upper gastrointestinal endoscopy plays a very important role in diagnosing Upper Gastrointestinal pathology with precision and is cost effective in most of the patients. Investigation and eradication of H pylori should be considered in all patients found to have gastric and duodenal lesions on endoscopic studies.
Keywords: Upper abdomen, Pain, Endoscopy