Why is my stomach inflamed
Gastritis (Stomach Inflammation) Signs & Symptoms, Complications (& Why They Occur)
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hi everyone this lesson is on the signs
and symptoms of gastritis or stomach
inflammation if you want more
information on acute gastritis please
check my full lesson on this topic
before we get into the signs and
symptoms let's talk about what gastritis
is gastritis is an inflammation of the
gastric or stomach mucosa so it's an
inflammation of the lining inside the
stomach
it's actually in the word gastritis the
prefix gas refers to the stomach and
itis refers to inflammation now
gastritis may affect part of the stomach
or the entire stomach in some cases
there are a variety of causes of
gastritis again if you want more
information on the causes please check
out my full lesson on this topic but
some of the causes that can lead to
gastritis include infections so an
infection with the bacteria helicobacter
pylori can lead to inflammation of the
stomach this would be considered h
pylori gastritis
alcohol and smoking can also lead to
gastritis as well certain medications
like non-steroidal anti-inflammatories
or nsaids like ibuprofen if ibuprofen is
used for a long period of time this can
lead to stomach inflammation we can also
see it with iron supplements and
colchicine which is a gout medication
gastroesophageal reflux disease so
persistent chronic
reflux disease can lead to erosive
gastritis so this is another important
cause of gastritis and then ischemia if
there's not enough blood flow to the
stomach to supply the tissues and the
lining within the stomach parts of the
lining can die and this can lead to
gastritis so as you can see many
different causes of gastritis that lead
to multiple types of gastritis
so
most types are going to have very
similar signs and symptoms but some of
them are going to have very specific
signs and symptoms we're going to talk
about later on in this lesson although
there are many causes they all have
something in common they all lead to
increased destructive processes that
outweigh protective mechanisms within
the gastric mucosa so in the lining of
the stomach in the gastric mucosa there
is natural protective mechanisms against
damage however a lot of these causes
either deplete the protective mechanisms
or increase destructive processes that
out compete or outweigh those protective
mechanisms so ultimately they all have
that in common now the topic of this
lesson is that gastritis has a variety
of signs and symptoms we're going to
talk about those in the next upcoming
slides before we get into the signs and
symptoms it's important to make note of
the fact that gastritis may be
asymptomatic in fact a lot of patients
may have inflammation of their stomach
and not even know it this can be
particularly found in cases of h pylori
gastritis so that infection with that
bacteria helicobacter pluri can lead to
inflammation of the stomach and the
patient might not even know they have
gastritis but if a patient does
experience symptoms there is often a
sudden onset so oftentimes suddenly
they'll have multiple symptoms that
we're going to talk about here in a
moment so one of those symptoms is going
to be abdominal pain it's going to be
more specifically epigastric pain so
epigastric pain is going to be located
in this area here so above the belly
button or above the embolicus so right
in the center is where the epigastric
area is and that is going to be where a
patient is oftentimes going to have some
pain
and that pain may improve or worsen with
eating so it doesn't necessarily follow
any pattern but there can be some change
with eating and in some very rare cases
this pain can be very severe and acute
as would be found in the case of
phlegminus gastritis that's where the
stomach becomes gangrenous another very
common symptom of gastritis is dyspepsia
so does pepsi can be considered
indigestion
it's a discomfort in the epigastric area
so in the same area we mentioned here
but it is more of a discomfort
oftentimes it can be described as a
gnawing and burning sensation as well in
that area and oftentimes this is going
to be a very common symptom but
oftentimes it's going to be mild in
severity some other signs and symptoms
include nausea and vomiting so feeling
nauseous and vomiting may occur with
gastritis
due to inflammation of the stomach so
you can imagine that if the stomach is
inflamed this can cause some nausea for
the patient
this can also lead to a reduced appetite
as well so reduction or loss of appetite
can occur with gastritis and again this
is due to stomach inflammation patients
can also report abdominal fullness
so having a feeling of a sensation of
fullness may occur in some patients
again it's going to occur in that
epigastric area
and it's going to occur after eating so
this can often be the case with
gastritis and again it's going to occur
in the epigastric area now patients with
gastritis can also experience bloating
as well so this can be a common finding
so feeling of being bloated can occur
and then belching can also be something
that can be found so more frequent
burping may occur with gastritis as well
now some more rare findings include the
following fever and chills some patients
may have a fever in chills although
again this is going to be less common
and it may occur due to inflammation or
infection and then another interesting
finding in patients with gastritis is
hiccups so hiccups can actually be a
sign of gastritis especially if those
hiccups are persistent and long lasting
so that gastritis that inflammation of
the stomach can lead to persistent
long-lasting hiccups so the reason being
is that the stomach inflammation may
trigger the hiccup reflex so other
gastrointestinal conditions can cause
persistent hiccups but this is one of
them so this is an interesting finding
to make note of now some more serious
findings that can occur in gastritis
include bleeding
so the bleeding can either be occult
bleeding which means that the patient
wouldn't even realize they're having a
bleed or it can be hematokesia which is
a bright red and bloody stool
or they can have molina which it would
be dark and black tarry and smelly stool
so the difference between hematokesia
molina again hematokeezy is bright red
in coloration it's a bright red stool
this is going to occur oftentimes from a
lower gastrointestinal bleed but if it's
from an inflamed stomach oftentimes it's
going to be due to a very brisk quick
bleed if it's molina that means that the
blood has been digested so if it's a
slower bleed the blood has enough time
to be digested in the gastrointestinal
system and it's going to come out as a
black tarry stool so those are the two
differences with regards to hematochesia
and molina this bleeding is going to be
due to a bleeding erosion or ulcer so
that inflammation in the stomach can
lead to an erosion or an ulceration and
then some patients can experience
hematemesis which is vomiting of blood
this can be red in color so it may be
just small amounts of blood it may be
just streaks of blood in the mucous
in some cases it may be what we would
call coffee ground emesis this is where
there is some blood that has been
digested by the stomach a little bit and
then it gets vomited up and it looks
like coffee grounds so either can be red
in coloration so again it can be a
little bit that may be noted in some
mucus or it can be this coffee ground
emesis it looks like coffee grounds in
the vomit so that can also occur with
gastritis as well
and again this hematemesis is going to
be due to a bleeding ulcer or erosion
and all that bleeding can lead to anemia
so anemia is a low hemoglobin count
so again it's from the blood losses that
we talked about before it's from that
occult bleed so the patient might not
even know they're having a bleed there
might be some very little amount of
blood in the stool that they don't even
recognize so that would be an occult
bleed and this can lead to anemia in
some cases or they can have frank
bleeding which would be hematophysia or
molina or hematemesis which we talked
about before so all those can lead to
bleeding and blood losses and those
blood losses are going to lead to iron
deficiency which is ultimately going to
lead to an iron deficiency anemia so
because of that iron deficiency anemia
patients are going to have signs and
symptoms of iron deficiency anemia so
those are going to include fatigue power
shortness of breath and some other
interesting findings and associated
conditions like restless leg syndrome so
if you want more information on the
signs and symptoms of iron deficiency
please check my full lesson on that
topic so this anemia along with bleeding
may actually be the presenting complaint
in certain patients especially those
with chronic gastritis or autoimmune
gastritis so these two types of
gastritis might not have some of those
more overt signs and symptoms we talked
about before like the abdominal pain and
the nausea and vomiting they may just
have some very small minor complaints
like anemia and some nutrient
deficiencies we're going to talk about
here in a moment so very important to
recognize that a patient that has anemia
may be due to gastrointestinal blood
losses that's very important to actually
look out for in a patient that has
especially iron deficiency anemia so
again very important to look out for
and even if the patient doesn't
recognize any bleeds it may be from an
occult bleed and then as i just alluded
to there are nutrient deficiencies that
can occur as well these include vitamin
b12 deficiency along with iron
deficiency we just talked about
oftentimes these nutrient deficiencies
are going to occur in autoimmune
gastritis now this iron deficiency that
can occur from autoimmune gastritis is
going to be due to reduced levels of
hydrochloric acid within the stomach so
it doesn't allow the proper absorption
of iron so this iron deficiency is also
going to contribute to the iron
deficiency anemia we just talked about
this can also lead to issues with
vitamin b12 digestion and absorption
leading to signs and symptoms of vitamin
b12 deficiency including some
neurological findings like symmetric
paresthesias and some other findings
like depression so if you want more
information on the sign the symptoms of
vitamin b12 deficiency please check out
my full lesson on that topic and then
there are some important complications
that can occur with gastritis these
include gastric outlet obstruction so
after food has been digested in the
stomach it goes out of the stomach this
would be the gastric outlet here and
what can happen is this part of the
stomach can be obstructed there can be a
blockage in that area due to excessive
edema so edema is swelling so due to
that inflammation in the stomach there
can be some swelling in the tissues and
this can actually block off the gastric
outlet so very important to recognize
this as well this essentially leads to
bowel obstruction there is an
obstruction that doesn't allow food
contents to pass this can lead to
worsening nausea and vomiting along with
constipation and obstipation so you can
imagine that if nothing is going through
past that gastric outlet nothing is
going to go through the gastrointestinal
system so there's going to be
constipation and then obstitation would
be where a patient doesn't even pass
flatus so those can occur in severe
cases of gastritis with a complication
of gastric outlet obstruction and then
we can also see dehydration occurring in
some patients this is going to occur
from excessive vomiting so if a patient
does have very severe gastritis where
they have nausea and a lot of vomiting
they can become dehydrated this can lead
to signs of dehydration like dry mucous
membranes as you can see in this image
here with this tongue being very dried
out and then this dehydration can lead
to an acute kidney injury so because
there's not enough fluid volume getting
to the kidneys this can lead to an acute
kidney injury if you want to learn about
how acute gastritis is diagnosed and
treated please check out my full lesson
on this topic and if you haven't already
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lessons like this one thanks so much for
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