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Causes
By Mayo Clinic staff
It's not always clear what leads to gastroparesis. But in many cases, gastroparesis is believed to be caused by damage to a nerve that controls the stomach muscles (vagus nerve).
The vagus nerve helps manage the complex processes in your digestive tract, including signaling the muscles in your stomach to contract and push food into the small intestine. A damaged vagus nerve can't send signals to your stomach muscles. This may cause food to remain in your stomach longer, rather than move normally into your small intestine to be digested.
The vagus nerve can be damaged by diseases, such as diabetes, or by surgery to the stomach or small intestine.
- Gastroparesis. National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/gastroparesis/index.aspx. Accessed Oct. 17, 2011.
- Fox J, et al. Gastroparesis. American College of Gastroenterology. http://www.acg.gi.org/patients/gihealth/gastroparesis.asp. Accessed Oct. 17, 2011.
- Tang DM, et al. Gastroparesis: Approach, diagnostic evaluation and management. Disease-a-Month. 2011:57:74.
- Nutrition therapy for gastroparesis. Nutrition Care Manual. American Dietetic Association. http://nutritioncaremanual.org/index.cfm. Accessed Oct. 25, 2011.
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