Bright Red Blood in the Stool
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Dear Ask The Doctor: My 16 year old daughter has been having bright red blood in her stool this past week. She is not having her period, is not constipated, and has some abdominal pain.
Dear Diane: Bright red blood in the stool suggests bleeding from the distal end of the gastrointestinal tract. This can be due to a number of reasons including a gastro-intestinal infection, inflammation of the colon, haemorrhoids, inflammatory bowel disease, and some rarer disorders such as angiodysplasia and malignant growth. I advise bringing your daughter to her family doctor for a detailed history of the bleeding and a clinical examination. He may refer her to a gastroenterologist for further investigations such as colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy, which visualise the colon through a camera lens. |
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Last Updated ( Monday, 15 March 2010 )
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