digestive disorders
Gastritis
Symptoms of Gastritis
Gastritis usually causes no symptoms. When symptoms do occur, they vary depending on the cause and may include pain or discomfort or nausea or vomiting, problems that are often simply referred to as indigestion (dyspepsia). Nausea and intermittent vomiting can result from more severe forms of gastritis such as erosive gastritis and radiation gastritis. Indigestion can occur, especially with erosive gastritis, radiation gastritis, postgastrectomy gastritis, and atrophic gastritis. Very mild indigestion also occurs with acute stress gastritis. Complications of gastritis include Bleeding Ulcers Narrowing of the passage out of the stomach Acute stress gastritis may lead to bleeding within a few days after an illness or injury, whereas bleeding tends to develop more slowly in the case of chronic erosive gastritis or radiation gastritis. If bleeding is mild and slow, people may have no symptoms or may notice only black stool (melena), caused by the black color of digested blood. If bleeding is more rapid, people may vomit blood or pass blood in their stool. Persistent bleeding can lead to symptoms of Overview of Anemia , including fatigue, weakness, and light-headedness. Gastritis can lead to Peptic Ulcer Disease (gastric ulcers), which may cause the symptoms to get worse. If an ulcer goes through (perforates) the stomach wall, stomach contents may spill into the abdominal cavity, resulting in inflammation and usually infection of the lining of the abdominal cavity ( Some complications of gastritis are slow to develop. The scarring and narrowing of the stomach outlet that can result from gastritis, especially from radiation gastritis and eosinophilic gastritis, can cause severe nausea and frequent vomiting. In Ménétrier disease, fluid retention and swelling of the tissues (edema) may occur because of loss of protein from the inflamed stomach lining. Postgastrectomy gastritis and atrophic gastritis may cause symptoms of anemia, such as fatigue and weakness, because of decreased production of intrinsic factor (a protein that binds vitamin B12, allowing the B12 to be absorbed and used in the production of red blood cells). In a small percentage of people with atrophic gastritis, the stomach tissue transforms into another type of digestive tract tissue (metaplasia). In an even smaller percentage of people, metaplasia leads to Stomach Cancer . 