What Is a Bowel or Fecal Urgency?

Bowel or fecal urgency is a sudden, irresistible need to have a bowel movement. Urge fecal incontinence is inability to hold stool during bowel urgency. Bowel incontinence is complete inability to control bowel movements. Tenesmus (Greek tens = strain) is a repeating painful urge to defecate without excreting any stool.  

Causes of Bowel Urgency

1. Occasional Bowel Urgency in Healthy People

Large Meal

A large, especially fibre-rich fruit or vegetable meal, can produce a lot of stool, which can be, for some people, difficult to hold in. A quick change from mixed to vegetarian diet can also irritate the bowel.

continue reading Urgency to Have a Bowel Movement, Urge Fecal Incontinence

What Is Peritoneum?

The peritoneum (Greek peritonaion = stretched across) is an abdominal membrane consisting of two sheets: the parietal peritoneum (Latin parietalis = belonging to walls) that covers the inner side of the abdominal wall and the visceral peritoneum (Latin viscera = internal organs) that covers certain abdominal organs.

Picture of peritoneal cavity, parietal and visceral peritoneum

Peritoneal Cavity, Intraperitoneal and Retroperitoneal Organs

Abdominal organs that are totally surrounded by visceral peritoneum are called intraperitoneal organs and include: the liver, spleen, stomach, gallbladder, a part of the duodenum, small intestine, transverse and sigmoid colon, uterus, Fallopian tubes and ovaries.

continue reading Peritoneal Cavity, Diseases of Parietal and Visceral Peritoneum, Video

What Are Adhesions?

This article describes abdominal adhesions, bowel (intestinal) adhesions and pelvic adhesions.

Adhesions (Latin adhere= to stick, to hold tight) are abnormal bands of scar tissue that form between internal organs and glue them together. Normally, scar tissue is formed only within an injured area, as part of a healing process, but in case of adhesions, it also appears on adjacent surfaces and can connect them.

Abdominal adhesions mostly appear after abdominal surgery or inflammation, and pelvic adhesions after gynecological operations or pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), mostly resulting from sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

Abdominal or pelvic adhesions may develop inside the intestine and uterus, or between surfaces of organs and abdominal membrane (peritoneum), thus pulling organs from their original positions, obstructing passage of food and blood supply, causing abdominal or pelvic pain, bloating, constipation, urinary retention, irregular menstrual bleeding or infertility.

Pictures of abdominal adhesions

continue reading Adhesions: Abdominal, Bowel, Pelvic – Symptoms, Treatment, Pictures

Appendectomy, or appendicectomy, is the surgical removal of the appendix, which is a small, long sac attached to the first part of the large intestine. Appendicitis is the inflammation of the appendix and untreated acute appendicitis may lead to rupture of the appendix.

continue reading Surgical Appendix Removal – Appendectomy, Appendicectomy

Abdominal Pain

Abdominal pain appears in the abdomen (stomach, belly) and can arise from abdominal organs like the gallbladder or appendix, or other organs like the spine or heart.

Severity of abdominal pain does not always correlate with severity of an underlying disorder: constipation or gas, built in the bowel, may cause debilitating pain, while developed pancreatic cancer may not cause any symptoms. Check for causes of severe abdominal pain.

Abdominal Quadrants

One vertical and one horizontal line flowing through the navel (umbilicus) divide abdomen on four abdominal quadrants: right upper, right lower, left upper and left lower.

continue reading Abdominal Pain, Picture of Abdominal Quadrants with Organs

What Is Burping (Belching)?

Burping (belching) means expelling of the air or other gases from your stomach through your mouth. Many healthy people expel some non-smelling air after eating or drinking. Various health disorders can causes excessive burping. 

What Are Sulphur Burps?

The smell of sulphur or rotten egg burps comes from hydrogen sulfide (H2S), a gas originating from sulphur-containing proteins in certain foods (see below) after they are broken down in the stomach or small intestine by sulphur-reducing microbes.  These microbes may be normal intestinal bacteria or pathogenic bacteria.

continue reading Sulphur or Rotten Eggs Burps (Belching), Foul Smelling Gas

What Is Double Balloon Endoscopy?

Double balloon endoscopy (enteroscopy) is an endoscopic investigation of the entire small intestine, using a gastroscope or colonoscope and a tube with two balloons that help to drag the intestine over the endoscope (1). Investigation is done to:

• Make biopsies of suspicious mucosal lesions found by capsule endoscopy, mainly for diagnosis of celiac and Crohn’s disease, small intestinal tumors and unexplained bowel bleeding.
• Dilatation of strictures, removing of foreign objects, stopping of bleeding, etc.

continue reading Double Balloon Endoscopy (Enteroscopy)

Bloating – stomach distension due to gas built in the stomach or bowel – may be caused by certain foods, intestinal disorders, bacterial overgrowth or food poisoning with bacteria or parasites.

What Causes Bloating Shortly After Eating?

Bloating in the upper abdomen appearing within minutes after starting a meal may be caused by:

• Carbonated drinks, like soda or beer
• Baking soda
• Helycobacter pylori infection of the stomach. Infection with this bacterium is common and may cause nausea, early satiety, bloating and burping shortly after starting a meal 
• Slow stomach emptying, caused by:
  • Fibrous tissue (resulting from chronic infection, ulcer or surgery) obstructing the exit of the stomach (pylorus)
  • Hypothyroidism
  • Atherosclerosis of abdominal vessels or damage of abdominal nerves in long lasting diabetes, or smoking

 
continue reading Bloating After Eating; Foods that Cause Bloating

What Is Capsule Endoscopy?

In capsule endoscopy, you swallow a pill-shaped camera (PillCam) that then travels through your gut and makes pictures of your small intestine (1).

Picture 1. A capsule camera to swallow in capsule endoscopy
(source: Wikipedia)

A capsule camera is 28 mm (about an inch) long and 11 mm wide. It has a slippery coating when wet to ease swallowing a bit. The cost of the camera and procedure is about $500 (without insurance).

When Is It Done?

Capsule endoscopy may be done when small bowel disease like celiac or Crohn’s disease or bowel bleeding that cannot be detected by upper endoscopy or colonoscopy is suspected. Capsule endoscopy can be done in a patient after 10 years of age (2), including pregnant women (3).

continue reading Small Bowel or Capsule Endoscopy – Procedure, Video and Pictures

Upper GI Endoscopy = Esophago-Gastro-Duodenoscopy (EGD)

Upper gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy is a diagnostic procedure enabling your doctor to see inside your esophagus, stomach and duodenum (the first part of the small intestine), using a flexible viewing tube – gastroscope. Gastroscope has a light and camera on the end and enables direct observing, viewing on the monitor and taking pictures or videos.

When Is Upper Endoscopy Done?

Upper endoscopy may be used to find a cause of unexplained excessive belching, nausea, vomiting, heartburn, difficulty swallowing, upper abdominal pain, anemia (due to bleeding), poor appetite or unintended weight loss. With an upper endoscopy a doctor can detect:

continue reading Upper Endoscopy (Gastroscopy) Procedure, Video, Pictures, Cost