Dysphagia
Dysphagia is difficulty in swallowing. Although classified under "symptoms and signs" in ICD-10, in some contexts it is classified as a condition in its own right.
| Dysphagia | |
|---|---|
| The digestive tract, with the esophagus marked in red | |
| Specialty | Gastroenterology, Phoniatrics |
| Symptoms | Inability or difficulty swallowing |
| Complications | Pulmonary aspiration, malnutrition, starvation |
| Causes | Esophageal cancer, Esophagitis, Stomach cancer, mental illness, alcoholism, refeeding syndrome, starvation, infection, gastritis, malnutrition |
It may be a sensation that suggests difficulty in the passage of solids or liquids from the mouth to the stomach, a lack of pharyngeal sensation or various other inadequacies of the swallowing mechanism. Dysphagia is distinguished from other symptoms including odynophagia, which is defined as painful swallowing, and globus, which is the sensation of a lump in the throat. A person can have dysphagia without odynophagia (dysfunction without pain), odynophagia without dysphagia (pain without dysfunction) or both together. A psychogenic dysphagia is known as phagophobia.
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