What are some of the gastrointestinal issues that the EDS patient often has to deal with?

What are some of the gastrointestinal issues that the EDS patient often has to deal with?

 Although structural abnormalities of the gastrointestinal tract are common in EDS, due to the fragility and extensibility of the tissue. Hiatal hernia, gastric, duodenal and colonic diverticula may occur. Other features which have been demonstrated are visceroptosis (protrusion of the contents of the abdomen), slow motility, delayed gastric emptying, gastric atony (lack of contraction of the stomach), recurrent abdominal pain, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), megaoesophagus, irritable bowel, constipation, diarrhea, megacolon, bleeding, ruptures, and perforations.


(Solomon JA, et.al "GI Manifestations of EDS" Am J Gastroenterol 1996 Nov; 91 (11): 22820-8) (Poken-Harris et.al "The Prevalence of Non-Surgical Complications in the EDS")