Abdominal bloating and distension in functional gastrointestinal disorders - epidemiology and possible mechanisms.

摘要

Sirs, In their paper on tie epidemiology and pathophysiology of abdominal bloating and distension, Agrawal and Whorwell review the putative mechanisms but reject the view that it may be because of lumbar hyperlordosis and pushing down the diaphragm as this has been disproved by computerized tomography. This statement, however, confuses two different conditions: bloating because of disturbance of the intestinal motility and handling of gas [typical in irritable bowel syndrome [IBS)], and nongaseous bloating because of disturbance in the muscles of the abdominal wall.