Dysphagia syndrome is a swallowing disorder. It appears in certain diseases of the pharynx, esophagus or nervous system. Dysphagia occurs in elderly people, premature infants, as well as patients who suffer from disorders of the brain and nervous system. In each case, this syndrome has its causes and symptoms.
Causes of dysphagia
With dysphagia of the esophagus during the act of swallowing, there is a functional or organic obstacle that does not give a lump of liquid or solid food to move into the stomach. In some cases, the violation of the passage of food appears not only in the esophagus, but also in the oropharynx. This disorder manifests itself under the influence of a variety of factors.
The most common causes of dysphagia are:
- foreign bodies in the esophagus (fish bones, large lumps of food, small parts of toys, etc.)
- chemical burns;
- diseases of the esophagus;
- hernia of the esophageal opening of the diaphragm;
- esophagitis and stomach ulcers .
Dysphagia can also be caused by the inability of the nerve and muscles, which carry out the progress of food, to perform their functions. Provoke such a state of head trauma, stroke, Parkinson's disease or muscular dystrophy. A functional dysphagia appears against the background of nervous system disorders, for example, with increased excitability, or neuroses.
Symptoms of dysphagia
The main signs of the disease, usually, do not include severe pain. Painful sensations in the patient can appear only when the diffuse spasm develops. In other cases, the symptoms of dysphagia of the esophagus are:
- sensation of suffocation;
- copious salivation;
- violation of food progression, accompanied by throwing a lump in the nasal cavity or mouth;
- coughing;
- aspiration pneumonia (with the penetration of a foreign agent);
- the need to make efforts to swallow food.
Dysphagia on nervous soil develops with the same signs, but all of them manifest sporadically. Most often they are provoked by one or several types of food, for example, hard, sharp, liquid.
With dysphagia, there may be a development of the disease, in which the swallowing act is not disturbed, but the passage of food is accompanied by abdominal pain, heartburn and belching. This may cause an unpleasant taste in the mouth. Sometimes, when a dysphagia of the esophagus appears in the patient, there is a slight hoarseness of the voice.