Up to one-third of patients experience abdominal pain, nausea, or bloating afterward, which may last hours to several days. Fortunately, severe complications including hemorrhage, perforation, and death are rare, with a total incidence of 0.28%.
Why does my abdomen hurt after a colonoscopy? Your abdomen may hurt after a colonoscopy due to bloating — air is pumped into your colon during the procedure to help your doctor better see the inside of your colon. You may therefore notice that you pass gas more frequently in the hours after your procedure.
You may feel gassy or bloated for a while after the procedure because of the air that was injected into your intestine during the colonoscopy. As you release the air, the feeling should begin to subside. You should feel back to normal in that regard within 30 minutes to an hour.
Mild abdominal pain/discomfort immediately after a colonoscopy is not rare, occurring anywhere between 2.5% to 11% of the cases [2]. Though it may have a host of etiologies, it is most commonly a result of air insufflation, endoscope looping, and/or manual pressure maneuvers used during a colonoscopy.
Up to one-third of patients experience abdominal pain, nausea, or bloating afterward, which may last hours to several days. Fortunately, severe complications including hemorrhage, perforation, and death are rare, with a total incidence of 0.28%.
Pain after the colonoscopy
It is normal to experience some stomach pain after the procedure, usually because the air causes gas. This sensation may be mild or intense, but it typically only lasts an hour or two. Some people experience mild stomach pain for a day or two after the procedure.
You may have a bloated, gaseous feeling in your abdomen after a colonoscopy. Passing gas and belching will help. Walking or lying down on your left side with your knees flexed may relieve the discomfort.
Physicians should therefore suspect a CP if a patient has fever, abdominal pain or distention following the colonoscopic examination, even if the patient presents with these symptoms several days after the procedure.
Complications related to colonoscopy include, but are not limited to, the following: Continued bleeding after biopsy (tissue sample) or polyp removal. Nausea, vomiting, bloating or rectal irritation caused by the procedure or by the preparatory bowel cleansing.
Belly Pain or Discomfort
This is the most common side effect of colonoscopy. You might feel cramping or bloating afterward. Your doctor may use air to inflate your colon so they can get a better view.
Bleeding is one of the most common complications of colonoscopy, accounting for 0.3-6.1% of cases[35,36].
Background: Ulcerative colitis (UC) patients often report symptom flares after colonoscopy.
Colonoscopy recovery is usually quick with most people resuming normal activity the next day. Even so, it is important not to rush back to work. It is best to take the remainder of the day to rest, recover from sedation, and replenish fluids and nutrition. The results of your exam should be available within a few days.
After the exam, it takes about an hour to begin to recover from the sedative. You'll need someone to take you home because it can take up to a day for the full effects of the sedative to wear off. Don't drive or make important decisions or go back to work for the rest of the day.
Abdominal pain after colonoscopy is a relatively common symptom and usually benign. Colonoscopy-induced pancreatitis is an extremely rare phenomenon that can sometimes be missed leading to delayed diagnosis and treatment.
This research, the first to explore data on ASCs and postprocedure infection, revealed that the rate of infection seven or fewer days after the procedure was slightly higher than 1 in 1,000 for screening colonoscopies and about 1.6 per 1,000 for nonscreening colonoscopies.
The likely underlying mechanism of pancreatitis following colonoscopy is blunt trauma to the pancreas. Because the tail of the pancreas is in close proximity to the splenic flexure, manipulation of the colonoscope through the flexure with sufficient insufflation would produce pressure trauma to the pancreas tail.
The primary symptoms of gastrointestinal perforation are severe abdominal pain and tenderness. The abdomen may also protrude or feel hard to the touch. If the hole is in a person's stomach or small intestine, the onset of pain is usually sudden, but if the hole is in the large bowel, the pain may come on gradually.
When you've had a gastrointestinal perforation and peritonitis occurs, the abdomen feels very tender. Pain often worsens when someone touches or palpates the area or when the patient moves. Pain is generally better when lying still. The abdomen may stick outward farther than normal and feel hard.
A bowel perforation is a medical emergency. If it leads to sepsis, it can be fatal. In some cases, smaller bowel tears can heal on their own. However, it is more likely a person with a bowel perforation will need surgery and treatment to repair it.