Causes and Symptoms of Hiatal Hernia
Hiatal Hernia
Hiatal hernia is considered as an anatomical abnormality. In hiatal hernia a part of your stomach gets protruded through diaphragm in to the chest area. Diaphragm is a muscular partition that separates the abdomen from the chest. Diaphragm has a hole called esophageal hiatus to pass the esophagus down and to get attached to the stomach. In hiatal hernia the stomach moves up to the chest region through this hole. Hiatal hernia is commonly seen in people above 60 years.
Types of Hiatal Hernia
Hiatal hernia is of two types and they are sliding type and fixed type.
Sliding Hiatal Hernia
When the pressure increases in the abdominal region the stomach will move upwards to the chest region through the esophageal hiatus. When the pressure in the abdominal region subsides the stomach will move down to its original position.
Fixed Hiatal Hernia
In fixed hiatal hernia a part of the stomach gets stuck in the chest region and it won’t move down once the pressure in the abdominal region goes down.
Causes of Hiatal Hernia
Some people have congenital defect of having a large esophageal hiatus and in such people hiatal hernia is very common. Sometimes the esophagus may be loosely attached to the diaphragm and this allows the sliding of the esophagus and stomach. In certain other cases any inflammation or ulceration caused by stomach acid reflux makes the esophagus shorten and pulls the stomach towards up. Smoking, aging, obesity, frequent cough, poor seated posture, constipation strains, lifting heavy objects, frequent bending etc. increases your chance for getting hiatal hernia.
Symptoms of Hiatal Hernia
The commonly seen hiatal hernia is sliding type and most of the people lack any symptoms. While some people exhibit chest pain, belching, heartburn, coughing, hiccups, difficulty in swallowing food etc. Upper abdominal pain or chest pain occurs when the stomach gets trapped in the chest region and very rarely the blood supply to the trapped part of the stomach gets cut off and thus resulting in severe pain and other problems.
If you are vomiting blood or passing dark colored stools or having fever and cough along with other hiatal hernia symptoms then it will be better to check it up with your doctor.
