DYSPEPSIA
Dyspepsia disease has symptom complex which include:
- Upper abdominal pain
- Upper abdominal burning
- Early satiety
- Post meal abdominal fullness
Causes
Dyspepsia can be secondary to organic diseases or functional.
Organic diseases may include peptic ulcer disease (Hyperacidity), medications like pain killers and blood thinners, stomach cancer, diabetes mellitus and thyroid diseases, carbohydrate malabsorption, gastroparesis, and pancreatitis.
Functional dyspepsia requires exclusion of other organic causes.
Treatment
The treatment plan depends upon the presence of alarming features.
Alarming features include:
- Dysphagia (Difficulty in swallowing)
- Odynophagia (Pain while swallowing)
- Unintentional weight loss
- Unexplained anemia
- Persistent vomiting
- Lump in abdomen
- Family history of cancer
- Age greater than 55
The patients with alarming feature are advised to undergo endoscopy at the earliest. The other patients, who do not show any alarming features, are treated with H2 blockers, proton pump inhibitors, drugs to fasten the gastro – intestinal motility called prokinetics and H. Pylori eradication treatment.