Bloating
From Freepedia
Bloating is any abnormal general swelling, or increase in diameter of the abdominal area. As a symptom, the patient feels a full and tight abdomen, which may cause abdominal pain. sometimes accompanied by borborygmus. Bloating may have several causes, the most common being accumulation of liquids and intestinal gas. Ascites is the proper medical term for abdominal bloating caused by excessive accumulation of liquid inside the cavity.
Common causes for abdominal bloating are:
- Overeating (gastric distension)
- Lactose intolerance, fructose intolerance and other food intolerances
- Food allergy
- Aerophagia (air swallowing, a nervous habit)
- Alvarez' syndrome, hysterical or neurotic abdominal bloating without excess of gas in the digestive tract
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Partial bowel obstruction
- Gastric dumping syndrome or rapid gastric emptying
- The ingestion of some gas-producing foods
- Constipation
- Splenic-flexure syndrome
- Menstruation, dysmenorrhea and premenstrual stress syndrome
- Polycystic ovary syndrome and ovarian cysts
- Massive infestation with intestinal parasites, such as worms (e.g, Ascaris lumbricoides)
- Diverticulosis
Important but uncommon causes of abdominal bloating include large intra-abdominal tumors, such as those arising from ovarian, liver, uterus and stomach cancer; and megacolon, an abnormal dilation of the colon, due to some diseases, such as Chagas disease, a parasitic infection.
Gaseous bloating may be a consequence of cardiopulmonary resuscitation procedures, due to the artificial mouth-to-mouth insuflation of air.
Postmortem bloating occurs in cadavers, due to the formation of gases by bacterial action and putrefaction of the internal tissues of the abdomen and the inside the intestines.
In some animals, like cats, dogs and cattle, gastric dilatation-volvulus, or bloat also occurs when gas is trapped inside the stomach and a gastric torsion or volvulus prevents it from escaping.
Source
- Partly based on Abdominal bloating. MedlinePlus (US public domain Medical Encyclopedia). Update Date: 10 November 2004. Updated by: Christian Stone, M.D., Division of Gastroenterology, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.
