Rebound tenderness or Bloomberg Sign is a health condition related to abdomen or stomach tissues area that gets irritated with inflammation, which can be diagnosed by the doctor on physically examining the patient.
Symptoms of Rebound Tenderness
The patient feels pain in the abdomen when the doctor tries examines the patient by pressing and releasing pressure in various ways.
Patent feels pain around navel area or appendices area (lower right side of abdominal).
It can be also, related to a twisted Fallopian tube, hernia, or colitis
The peculiar thing about this pain is that, it is experienced on releasing the pressure rather than at the time of applying it.
When pressure is applied there is negligible or no pain, but when one stops applying pressure and frees the body of it, the pain is acutely felt. Since its felt on a rebound it’s called rebound tenderness.
Rebound tenderness in most cases in experienced when the parietal layer of the peritoneum gets provoked as a result of overstretching or when the affected part undergoes exertion or movement.
Who can Get Rebound Tenderness?
Rebound tenderness can trigger in men, women as well as kids. And reasons could vary from one individual to the other based on his/her age and over all health condition.
Under this situation, a tissue layer made of cells that form a protective border in wall of the pelvis and abdomen gets infected by germs, bleeding or some kind of trauma, and as a result of this, the condition of inflamed peritoneum called peritonitis is diagnosed.
Reasons for Rebound Tenderness
1- Sometimes occurrence of Peritoneum could be signalling towards more serious conditions like systemic lupus erythematosus, familial Mediterranean fever and porphyria.
It is always better to seek medical guidance rather than make do with OTC medicines or ignoring the condition.
2- Second reason for abdominal tenderness is occurrence of Diverticulitis. It is a disease seen in people above 50 years of age is a digestion related problem can be cited as next reason that can cause rebound tenderness in a patient.
Diverticulas are small sacs running parallel to the wall of the large intestine. When inflammation occurs in them, the condition is called diverticulitis.
As people age, walls of large intestines start to weaken which may be responsible for the formation of diverticula.
3- The third reason for occurrence of rebounding tenderness could be due to Appendicitis.
Appendicitis is an abnormal growth resembling a worm that gets formed in the first half of the large intestine called appendix.
When appendix experiences inflammation, the condition is known as appendicitis. Such a symptom mostly points towards the infection of the wall of the appendix by the causative bacteria.
Appendicitis if allowed to go unnoticed or neglected may eventually develop to form abscess, pus pockets, and peritonitis infection.
4- Rebound tenderness can also be indicative of health condition known as Pancreatitis.
Pancreas is an organ located at the back of abdomen, which helps in digestion and is a sponge like, tubular organ measuring up to 6-inches approximately.
Function of pancreas is to produce pancreatic juices, and hormones including insulin for the body.
These pancreatic juices comprise enzymes that help humans to digest foods in the small intestine area. There are times when pancreas may get infected with bacteria and get inflamed; this condition is termed as pancreatitis.
5- Gastritis is another disorder that rebound tenderness may be pointing at. In Gastritis the inflammation is experienced and diagnosed in the stomach lining.
The symptoms of gastritis include burning sensation and feeling of discomfort in the upper abdomen. When this problem is persistent it has often to do with presence of peptic ulcers.
6- Rebound Tenderness can also point towards impending Sickle Cell disease which could occur either because of a hemolytic crisis or vaso-occlusive crisis.
That is to say when large numbers of red blood cells start to get damaged at a fast pace and the rate of destruction is far quicker than the pace at which they are produced by the body.
When a person suffers from this condition he may complain of intense pain in the abdomen or/and chest, anemia, & jaundice.
Diagnoses of Rebound Tenderness Condition:
The diagnosis begins with patient’s physical examination.
Doctor examines by way of applying and releasing pressure in various parts of abdominal area to observe if the patient feels a sudden shot of abdominal pain at the time of freeing the body part from such pressure in the abdomen, if it is so, then possibility of rebound tenderness is not ruled out.
To confirm the possibility several diagnostic tests are done, like urinalysis, liver function test, blood urea nitrogen, blood count, amylase/lipase test, ultrasound etc.
Treatment of Rebound Tenderness
Once doctor is able to find out the exact causer for the condition, treatment is planned accordingly.
The treatment of rebound tenderness lies in dealing with the underlying condition. I.e. to say getting rid of the condition that is responsible for it.
Surgery may or may not be advised depending on the condition. If the patient is found to be hemodynamically ill equipped, blood transfusion may be advised for such individuals.
Post care and recovery rules certainly include following a healthy diet and leading a physically active life.
