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
Dr. Frantz Glénard (1848-1920)
Glénard’stest 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
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
Gastroptosis : Arrow = greater curvature of stomach in pelvis; white star = gastric antrum; black star = gastric fundus | Kucera, S., & Sullivan, S. (2017). Visceroptosis and the Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Cureus (Vol. 9). https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.1828
Colonic ptosis: Arrow = transverse colon in pelvis; stars = food residue and barium in stomach | Kucera, S., & Sullivan, S. (2017). Visceroptosis and the Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Cureus (Vol. 9). https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.1828
Small bowel in pelvis |
Cecum in pelvis | Kucera, S., & Sullivan, S. (2017). Visceroptosis and the Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Cureus (Vol. 9). https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.1828
