For a patient admitted with right upper quadrant pain, which term describes the timing of the pain?

The term that best describes the timing of right upper quadrant pain in this context is intermittent. Intermittent pain refers to pain that occurs sporadically or at intervals rather than being consistently present. This pattern can be indicative of conditions that may cause episodic pain, such as biliary colic due to gallstones, where the pain arises and subsides based on certain triggers (like eating fatty foods).

On the other hand, constant pain would suggest a more persistent and unrelenting discomfort, which might lead to a different diagnostic consideration. Acute pain refers to the duration of the episode rather than the timing pattern, as it typically indicates more sudden onset often in the context of an injury or acute illness. Chronic pain implies that the pain has been ongoing for an extended period, generally over three months, which does not fit the typical presentation for patients coming to the hospital with acute symptoms.

Therefore, when evaluating this patient's presentation of right upper quadrant pain, intermittent best characterizes the nature of the symptoms, aligning with potential causes that exhibit such pain patterns.