Chapter 3 - Clinical presentations of gastroparesis

Abstract

Gastroparesis presents with upper gastrointestinal symptoms of nausea, vomiting, bloating, abdominal discomfort, early satiety, and postprandial fullness. While the established definition of gastroparesis rests on gastric emptying delay without mechanical obstruction, patients may not always have delayed gastric emptying as the disease is chronic but can also wax and wane. A lack of widely used standards for assessing delayed gastric emptying may account for these findings. Gastroparesis has varying symptoms, stemming from differences in its underlying etiology. These exist not only from the main three etiologies of gastroparesis—idiopathic, diabetic, and postsurgical—but also from differences amongst its less well-known and less common etiologies. Additionally, patients with disorders of brain-gut interaction such as functional dyspepsia may report symptoms similar to gastroparesis that stem from syndromes entirely separate from gastroparesis itself. This chapter explores the full spectrum of these diseases and disorders from which patients report symptoms of gastroparesis.