Excerpt from Swallowing Disorders Synonyms, Key Words, and Related Terms: dysphagia, swallowing, difficulty swallowing, swallowing disorders, dysphagia treatment, dysphagia diet, esophageal dysphagia, oropharyngeal dysphagia, achalasia, esophagus, pharynx, deglutition disorders, aspiration Please click here to view the full topic text: Swallowing Disorders Dysphagia, or swallowing disorder, is a general term used to describe the inability to move food from the mouth to the stomach. Dysphagia should be differentiated from disorders that prevent transfer of food to the mouth or beyond the stomach but that are not characterized by difficulty swallowing. For example, feeding disorder, which is the inability to get food to the mouth, and gastric outlet obstruction, which is the inability of food to pass from the stomach into the small intestine, are not types of dysphagia. An average of 10 million Americans are evaluated for swallowing disorders annually. Many causes have been identified for dysphagia; these are discussed later in this article. Related eMedicine topic: Dysphagia Please click here to view the full topic text: Swallowing Disorders

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