The stomach is a digestive organ located between the esophagus and the duodenum. It stores the food and provides the grinding of the food by contraction.
It also plays a role in digesting food by secreting acid and digestive enzymes.
It selects the liquid nutrients that are ready for absorption and transfers them to the duodenum.
What Will We Learn?
What Is Gastritis?
Gastritis is an inflammation that appears in the form of redness and swelling caused by damaging effects in the layer covering the inner surface of the stomach.
Gastritis, which is seen in both sexes and generally in middle-advanced age, is a common disease encountered in one out of 10 people in the world.
The fact that the disease is seen frequently in the society, that it affects life negatively by bleeding and becoming chronic, and that it can cause cancer in its advanced stages shows that it is an important health problem.
Each stage of the disease should be considered important.
The most accurate application and treatment should be determined.
In addition, at the end of the treatment, the person should be checked and the patient’s recovery should be confirmed.
The most important point in the disease is to explain and teach the causes, symptoms, prevention and treatment methods of gastritis.
Sudden onset of gastritis is defined as acute gastritis. The process in which the fire in the stomach continues for a long time is the chronic gastritis stage.
Autoimmune gastritis disease is a chronic gastritis disease in which the gastric cells, especially in the upper half of the stomach, are affected, and this picture is accompanied by vitamin B-12 deficiency and anemia.
While the incidence of acute gastritis is higher in women, the incidence of helicobacter pylori infection (acid-fast bacteria that settles in the digestive tract) is higher in men.
Causes Of Gastritis
The factors listed below are the most common causes of gastritis:
- The durability of the stomach tissue
- Effects that cause tissue damage
- Various causes such as infection
- Stress
- Acidic foods
- Smoking
- Heavy alcohol intake
- Painkillers and drugs used in the treatment of rheumatism,
- Helicobacter pylori infection
- Autoimmune immune system attack,
- Passage of bile from the intestine to the stomach,
- Chemotherapy and radiation therapy,
- Medicines containing iron and potassium,
- The stress effect of surgery or trauma on the body,
- Chron’s disease
- Sarcoidosis disease,
- Some viral and fungal infections
- Excessive consumption of caffeinated beverages
- Advanced age,
- Food poisoning
- Low fiber diet
Symptoms Of Gastritis
- Pain, burning, scraping, heartburn in the upper-middle part of the abdomen
- Nausea
- Indigestion, such as gas and bloating
- Vomiting that looks bloody or coffee grounds
- Black stools
If some of these symptoms have started and have not gone away in 2-3 days, a definitive diagnosis and treatment of gastritis is required.
- Bloody, coffee-ground-colored vomit
- Black color defecation
- Palpitation
- Shortness of breath
- Excessive sweating
- Weakness
- Dizziness
- Dry mouth
If these symptoms occur, a healthcare provider should be consulted without delay.
Diagnosis of Gastritis
It is very important to evaluate the information and findings obtained from the patient by the physician for the diagnosis of gastritis.
Sensitivity and a feeling of pain when the upper-middle part of the patient’s abdomen is pressed during the examination is a frequently determined feature.
Definitive diagnosis is made by endoscopic examination of the upper digestive system.
In this procedure, the esophagus, stomach and duodenum sections are examined in detail with a device called an “endoscope”, which can be bent by providing a short-term sleep state and has a camera and light source at the end.
In these sections, the tissue is observed and the presence of inflammation in the tissue and its properties, if any, are evaluated.
If necessary, small samples are taken from the tissue for pathological examination and investigation of Helicobacter pylori.
Another examination is the radiological method. In the radiological method, it is based on imaging the upper digestive system with drinking barium sulfate and similar opaque material.
Blood counts are performed in patients with gastric bleeding.
The decrease in the amount of red blood cells (hemoglobin) is an important finding in determining the bleeding and its severity.
Especially in cases where bleeding is suspected, the presence of blood in the examination of “occult blood in the stool” indicates bleeding from the digestive system.
With another stool examination, the presence or absence of this microbe in the digestive system is determined by investigating the surface antigen of Helicobacter pylori.
Urea breath test and blood antibody test are also used in Helicobacter pylori research.
Gastritis Treatment
The priority in the treatment of gastritis is to eliminate the risk factors determined in the individual.
Your doctor may restrict or completely prohibit the use of the following:
- Cigaret,
- Alcohol
- Coffee
- Cola
Medicines that reduce gastric acid secretion as medical treatment provide significant benefits in relieving complaints and healing the damaged tissue.
Neutralizing the acid secreted in the stomach is also important in relieving gastritis symptoms. For this purpose, liquid or chewable tablets called antacids are used.
Drugs that have a local effect for the healing of tissue damage are also quite additional.
When Helicobacter pylori infection is detected in chronic gastritis disease, the infection is destroyed by using antibiotics effective against the microbe.
Anemia caused by vitamin B-12 deficiency due to autoimmune gastritis is treated with vitamin B-12 in injection form.
It is appropriate to use drugs that reduce acid secretion in order to prevent stress-related gastritis in patients who have undergone major surgery or severe trauma and are hospitalized.
How Is Gastritis Pain Treated?
If gastritis complaints are mild, the symptoms can be easily controlled.
Common gastritis complaints are listed below:
- Severe pain
- Nausea
- Vomiting
In these complaints, the person may need to apply to the emergency room.
In case of mild to moderate discomfort, it is successful to use antacid tablets and liquid drugs 4, sometimes 6 times a day, and at the same time to take drugs that reduce acid secretion daily.
In the presence of severe symptoms, the following conditions may be considered:
- Drugs that reduce acid secretion administered in adequate doses intravenously,
- Use of antacid chewable tablets or liquid medications,
- Suspending food intake or making a suitable diet according to the condition of the disease
- In case of gastric bleeding, the patient may need to be hospitalized for follow-up and treatment after physician evaluation.
The methods listed below can be tried to control stomach bleeding:
- Interruption of nutrition,
- Serum therapy,
- Intravenous PPI administration,
- If an active bleeding focus is determined as a result of endoscopy, drug injection into the tissue during The procedure
- Application of argon plasma coagulation,
- Application of liquid/powder/gel drugs that stop bleeding,
- Endoclip applications that shrink the vessel
How To Prevent Gastritis?
Avoiding long-term use of aspirin or antirheumatic drugs and alcohol is the most important consideration in the prevention of gastritis.
In addition, the ones listed below are very important in preventing gastritis.
- Cigaret
- Excessive coffee consumption
- Avoiding sodas
In acute gastritis, recovery can be achieved by avoiding the conditions that cause gastritis and by applying medication when necessary.
Failure to avoid the factors that cause gastritis may result in the health problems listed below:
- Changes in the cells lining the inner surface of the stomach (intestinal metaplasia, that is, differentiation in the characteristics of stomach cells),
- Atrophy (wear and thinning of tissue),
- Further, it can cause dangerous changes in the cell nucleus (dysplasia) and then cancer.
- The risk of upper gastrointestinal bleeding increases.
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