Continuous lower back pain with hip pain. Getting soft stool. Reason for these symptoms?

Posted on Tue, 18 Dec 2012

Question: Hi. I have very smelly, soft stool. Yellowish brown. Frequent movements, 3+ day. For over 1 year, most of the time but not all the time. Also bad continual lower back & hip pain, worse when sitting or driving. Usually either hip or back pain, not both.

Answered by Dr. Sudhir Kumar (2 hours later)

Hi,

Thank you for posting your query.

There are two likely causes of your symptoms:

1. Parasitic infection- certain parasites such as giardia lamblia, etc can cause loose stools (foul smelling) for a long period of time.

It can be detected on stool microscopic examination, and if found, can be treated with anti-parasitic medications.

2. Malabsorption syndrome- In this condition, food is not properly absorbed, after ingestion. This results in loose stools for a long time, which may be smelly and sticky.

Investigations required to confirm this include serum vitamin B12 level, hemoglobin, total protein/albumin (all blood tests), 24-hour stool fat assay, and urinary xylose excretion.

I hope it helps. Please get back if you have any more queries.

Wishing you good health,
Dr Sudhir Kumar MD DM

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar