For Patients and Families
Many different symptoms may be reflective of a gastrointestinal motility disorder. Some common ones include:
| • Difficulty swallowing | | • Apnea |
| • Heartburn | | • Aspiration |
| • Unexplained chest pain | | • Recurrent pneumonia |
| • Persistent vomiting | | • G-Tube work-up |
| • Bloating / abdominal distention | | • Tracheostomy reconstruction work-up |
| • Weight or appetite loss | | • Feeding difficulties |
| • Constipation | | • Chronic cough |
| • Fecal Incontinence / Soiling | | • Back arching (infants) |
Symptoms often do not provide enough information to accurately predict the location or nature of the disorder. To identify this, the Neurogastroenterology and Motility Disorders team can evaluate one or multiple regions of the digestive tract simultaneously.
Some of the tests that we perform include:
We also provide biofeedback training to help patients control fecal incontinence. This involves the use of a computer to evaluate the patient’s muscle activity. We then train the patient to understand the muscle control necessary for proper defecation.
