COLIC, a term in medicine used outside England for any paroxysmal abdominal pain, but generally limited in England to a sudden sharp pain having its origin in the pelvis of the kidney, the ureter, gall-bladder, bile-ducts or intestine. There is a ten dency, however, to restrict use of the word to a pain produced by the contraction of the muscular walls of any hollow viscus of which the aperture has become more or less occluded, tem porarily or otherwise. For renal and biliary colic, see KIDNEY DISEASES and LIVER, only intestinal colic being treated here.
In infants, usually those who are "bottle-fed," colic is exceed ingly common, and is shown by the drawing up of their legs, their restlessness and their continuous cries.
Among adults one of the most serious causes is lead-poisoning (see LEAD-POISONING). In Germany a similar colic resulting from the absorption of copper occurs.
The simplest form of colic is that arising from habitual consti pation or from ingestion of indigestible food such as apples, pears or nuts, heavy pastry, meat pies and puddings, etc. Often it is associated with diarrhoea. It may accompany any form of enteri tis or an intestinal malignant growth, and certain forms of influ enza (q.v.) are ushered in by severe colic.
Intestinal colic is paroxysmal, and the pain is generally referred to the neighbourhood of the umbilicus. It varies greatly in inten sity and is usually relieved by pressure ; this point aids in the differential diagnosis between simple colic and peritonitis, the pain of the latter being increased by pressure.