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Case Reports
. 2019 Apr 1;58(7):929-931.
doi: 10.2169/internalmedicine.1908-18. Epub 2018 Nov 19.

A Rare Case Involving the Inability to Belch

Hiroki Sato  1 , Shunzo Ikarashi  1 , Shuji Terai  1
Affiliations
Case Reports

A Rare Case Involving the Inability to Belch

Hiroki Sato et al. Intern Med. .

Abstract

A 17-year-old girl was referred to our hospital with an inability to belch, while experiencing chest gurgling noises, and severe abdominal bloating. She reported having these symptoms all her life. A timed barium esophagogram revealed a moderate amount of bubbles in the esophagus and gastric fundus, which significantly increased after the examination. High resolution manometry revealed that the basal upper esophageal sphincter pressure increased with a rise in the cervical esophageal pressure. A pathological inability to belch is rare; at present, no specific name exists to describe the disorder. Further research is needed in this unexplored field.

Keywords: barium swallow; belch; burp; high resolution manometry.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors state that they have no Conflict of Interest (COI).

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
The initial timed barium esophagogram (not including sodium bicarbonate), showed a moderate amount of bubbles in the esophagus and gastric fundus. The bubbles significantly increased after the examination (blue arrows). Barium passed smoothly through the esophagogastric junction, although some barium remained stagnant in the middle to lower esophagus.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
High resolution manometry (Starlet; StarMedical, Tokyo, Japan) revealed complete upper esophageal sphincter (UES) opening (red triangle), normal peristalsis, and normal lower esophageal sphincter relaxation (yellow triangle) in response to deglutition. The basal UES pressure increased (black arrow) with the increase of the cervical esophageal pressure (white arrow), and UES relaxation was never elicited after repeated deglutition with esophageal and gastric distention.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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