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Interrogating ‘Round Ligament Pain’ and introducing ‘Pregnancy-Related Abdominal Wall Neuropathy’: a cohort study.
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  • Emily Twidale,
  • Hashilah Husaimee Ahmad ,
  • Shannon Halpin,
  • Hannah Price
Emily Twidale
Waikato District Health Board

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Hashilah Husaimee Ahmad
Waikato District Health Board
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Shannon Halpin
Waikato District Health Board
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Hannah Price
Waikato District Health Board
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Abstract

Objective: 1. Measure pregnant people’s experience of unexplained abdominal pain, their recognition of ‘Round Ligament Pain’ (RLP) and whether medical carers are providing this education. 2. Describe the features of participants’ unexplained abdominal pain and their crossover with those of abdominal wall pain (AWP), a treatable condition. Design: Prospective observational cohort. Setting: Single antenatal clinic in New Zealand. Population: 203 pregnant adults over 20 weeks’ gestation. Method: Written questionnaire. Main Outcome Measures: Presence of unexplained abdominal pain in pregnancy, knowledge of RLP, source of information on RLP and the descriptors participants used for their pain. Results: Objective 1. The majority had experienced unexplained abdominal pain in pregnancy (68.5%). Recognition of RLP was common (54%). Those with unexplained abdominal pain had an odds ratio of 9.23 of citing a medical carer as their RLP information source when compared to those without pain (95% CI 3.5-24.4). Objective 2. Most participants used multiple AWP descriptors, with a mean number of 4.06/10 (95% CI 3.71-4.41). Descriptors with the highest frequency of clustering with others were “pain worsened by lightly pushing on the painful area” (6.71/10, 95% CI 5.94–7.49), followed by “when in pain, sensation over the painful area feels different” (5.78/10, 95% CI 4.68-6.88). Conclusions: Unexplained abdominal pain in pregnancy is common and medical carers continue to cite RLP. Our participants’ unexplained abdominal pain shared many historical features with AWP. Funding: Nil sought. Keywords: Round ligament pain, abdominal wall pain, Anterior Cutaneous Nerve Entrapment Syndrome (ACNES), Pregnancy-Related Abdominal Wall Neuropathy (PRAWN), neuropathic pain.