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Welcome
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This website explains:
- what a hiatus hernia
is
- what symptoms you
might get from a hiatus hernia
- what investigations
are needed to diagnose it
- what treatments are
available for hiatus hernia
The diagram on the
right shows the inside of a human. The chest and abdomen
are separated from each other by a sheet of muscle
called the diaphragm.
The tube that takes food from your mouth to your stomach
has to go through the chest and into the abdomen. This
is called the oesophagus (or the "gullet").
It gets into the abdomen through a hole in the diaphragm
called the "hiatus". This hole lets the oesophagus
(gullet) through and keeps the stomach in the abdomen
below it.
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Hiatus Hernia
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In some people, the hiatus can enlarge and the stomach can slip up into the chest through it.
In medicine, when something pushes out of an area it should stay in, it is called a hernia.
Therefore, the stomach "herniates" through the hiatus in the diaphragm and moves into the chest.
As such, anything that is in the stomach - including food, drink and stomach acid, can now move easily back up into the oesophagus (gullet).
This is the cause of the usual symptoms of hiatus hernia:
- heart burn or food regurgitating into the back of the throat on lying down, straining or bending forwards.
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Treatment
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 If a doctor suspects a hiatus hernia, they usually ask for an endoscopy (a thin flexible tube put down the throat and into the oesophagus to see what is going on) or an X-ray with the patient drinking some contrast (which shows up on X-ray).
Treatments can be:
Conservative:
- Lose weight, wear loose belts and clothes
- Drugs, to prevent the contact of stomach acid on the oesophagus, or to reduce the stomach acid
Surgery (see diagram):
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Can be done open or by "keyhole" (laparoscopic) surgery methods
- The stomach is pulled down into the abdomen, the top is wrapped around the lower oesophagus and the hiatus is stitched smaller
Find a specialist hiatus hernia doctor
on
www.MedicalPages.co.uk |
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