PATHOPHYSIOLOGICAL DISCUSSION 2
The patient
The patient has a complete blood work, full metabolic levels, and her urine is normal. She
works as a nursing aid and lives home with her kids. She has not experienced depression,
anxiety, and stress recently.
Etiology
The Right Upper Quadrant Abdominal pain cause mostly arises from organs around the
upper right abdomen, although, some distant organs are also involved. These causes include
gallstones, abnormal accumulation of fats in the liver cells, colitis or inflammation of the colon,
pneumonia in the right lung, inflammation of the right kidney, constipation and inflammation of
the stomach.
Epidemiology
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2010 reported that more than 10
million cases were recorded in the United States emergency rooms for abdominal pain. In about
a third of the cases, the cause is not determined, and about 10% of the cases have a serious origin
like gallstones, biliary dyskinesia, and diverticulitis. Women are the most affected by the right
upper quadrant pains than men because they are mostly affected by gallstones as compared to
men (Taylor, Beck, & Meer, 2015).
Pathophysiology
When the stomach becomes irritated due to prolonged use of aspirin, consumption of
alcohol or infection, gastritis occurs. This is an inflammation of the stomach experienced at the
upper right quadrant that causes abdominal pain. The key role of the liver is to remove toxins
from the blood, but when it is infected, it causes abdominal pain and specifically to the right
upper quadrant abdominal pain. The infection of the pancreas leads to upper abdominal pain that
