No-Burp Syndrome
The inability to burp is known as retrograde cricopharyngeus dysfunction, or "no-burp syndrome." Anecdotes about people unable to burp date back centuries and had occasionally been reported in medical literature, but most doctors, until recently, were skeptical that the condition existed. Details from KFF Health News:
Reddit is credited with bringing awareness to this condition after those afflicted with it began sharing their stories at the "No Burp" subreddit.
André Smout, a gastroenterologist at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, said he read those reports when they came out.
"But we never saw the condition, so we didn't believe that it existed in real life," he said.
Smout's doubts persisted until he and colleagues studied a small group of patients a few years ago. The researchers gave eight patients with a reported inability to burp a "belch provocation" in the form of carbonated water, and used pressure sensors to observe how their throats moved. Indeed, the air stayed trapped. A Botox injection resolved their problems by giving them the ability to burp, or, to use an academic term, eructate.
"We had to admit that it really existed," Smout said.
"But we never saw the condition, so we didn't believe that it existed in real life," he said.
Smout's doubts persisted until he and colleagues studied a small group of patients a few years ago. The researchers gave eight patients with a reported inability to burp a "belch provocation" in the form of carbonated water, and used pressure sensors to observe how their throats moved. Indeed, the air stayed trapped. A Botox injection resolved their problems by giving them the ability to burp, or, to use an academic term, eructate.
"We had to admit that it really existed," Smout said.
Reddit is credited with bringing awareness to this condition after those afflicted with it began sharing their stories at the "No Burp" subreddit.
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Category: Health | Medicine | Stomach