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Internal Medicine

Visceroptosis

Visceroptosis (or enteroptosis),  also known as splanchnoptosis, abdominal ptosis, and Glénard’s disease is a prolapse or a sinking of the abdominal viscera (internal organs) below their natural position.


History

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Dr. Frantz Glénard (1848-1920)
  • Glénard’s test or girdle test
    • The examiner, standing behind the patient, places his arms around the patient, so that his hands meet in front of the patient’s abdomen; he squeezes and raises the viscera and then allows them to fall suddenly. If the patient feels relieved by the raising pressure and experiences distress on the release, the condition is probably one of splanchnoptosis.

Clinical features

  • Loss of appetite
  • Heartburn
  • Nervous indigestion
  • Constipation or diarrhea
  • Abdominal distention
  • Headache
  • Vertigo
  • Emaciation
  • Loss of sleep
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Showing the position of the viscera in the condition of visceroptosis (Glenard’s disease). Labels: A, sterno-ensiform line: it crosses above the fifth costal cartilage; B, mid-epigastric line; C, umbilical line; D, mid-hypogastric line; a, pericardium; b, stomach (greatly elongated and dilated); c, liver; c’, the lingual or Riedel’s process; d, duodenum; e, caecum; f, transverse colon; g, rectum; h, elongated gastro-hepatic omentum. | Treves, Frederick Surgical Applied Anatomy (New York, NY: Cassell and Company, LTD, 1922)

Diagnosis

Imaging

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