Oct 21, 2009 4:54 pm US/Central
New Pacemaker Can Help Keep Nausea Away
MIAMI (CBS) ―
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A certain medical device is helping patients relieve the symptoms of gastroparesis.
CBS
Imagine getting sick after eating just about any kind of food. It happens to thousands of people who have a condition called gastroparesis. But now, a certain medical device is helping patients relieve the symptoms, CBS station WFOR-TV reports.
Donna Schwartz, 37, had difficulty keeping food down and couldn't figure out why.
"I could eat an apple and I would be nauseous for about four hours. My symptoms were intractable nausea, meaning that no matter what I did - no matter what medication I took - I was queasy all the time," she said.
After many years and many doctors she finally got a diagnosis.
"I may have post-viral gastroparesis from Dengue Fever that I had gotten when I was in St. Kitts doing my veterinary schooling," Schwartz said.
Dr. Raul Rosenthal with the Cleveland Clinic in Weston says gastroparesis affects mostly young women and diabetics.
"Fifty-thousand cases in the United States of America alone. For those 50,000 it's a really serious disease. So the patients can not tolerate food they are constantly nauseous," Rosenthal explained.
Patients can become malnourished and medications only work temporarily.
Now a pacemaker, much like the ones used for the heart, can help relieve symptoms.
According to Rosenthal, "Instead of the battery being placed on your chest, it's placed on the abdominal wall. And those electrodes go to the wall of the stomach and they deliver a low energy but a high frequency stimulus to the stomach."
It has worked for Schwartz who said she can function much better on a daily basis. "Clinically I'm definitely better and seeing some improvement," admitted Schwartz.
This condition can be caused by a reaction to a virus or in other cases you're just born with it. But it may not surface until the patient reaches their 20's or 30's. To learn more about gastroparesis and the treatment,
visit the Cleveland Clinic Web Site
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