Question:

This person has no appetite, and whenever he eats, he can only eat small amounts before getting full. When an upper GI test was done on him, things looked normal, except some of the barium was still in the stomach after 5 hours. At times, the motility stops completely [an ileus?], and he vomits even when sipping water [this usually lets up after a few days]. Because of loss of weight, and feeding tube was put in from the nose, past the stomach, into the small intestine. The nutritional liquid seems to go through the small intestine fine, since the stomach is bypassed. Does this sound like a problem with the pyloric sphincter not opening correctly? Is there something that can be done to make the stomach empty? [Reglan & Erythromycin have been tried]. Is there a stretching procedure that can be done to that valve?

Answer:

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