Hiatal Hernia

Case Study 6

Michael, a 32 year old man showed many symptoms that led him to believe that he needed medical treatment. This paper will cover the probable causes for his symptoms, what homeostatic set points may have been altered, and how the body was attempting to restore homeostasis. I will conclude with my opinion on the diagnoses as well as a laid out treatment plan to best help the patient.

After reviewing the symptoms as a whole it became easier to determine what the probable cause for each of them was. To begin I would like to review each of them individually. One of the symptoms that Michael reported was feeling pain in his chest after eating; like most people without medical training he wrote it off as heart burn. After combining the symptoms as a whole I believe that this heart burn could actually be a reaction from possibly eating more acidic or spicy foods in his diet. It could also be because of a weakened of loose sphincter, this weak sphincter could also be a result of a birth defect. The weak sphincter combined with stomach acid would cause a heart burn like feeling. The acid from the stomach may be pushed up through the sphincter and into the esophagus.

Even though the stomach is protected by a lining and is able to handle the very acidic pH level, the esophagus is not built the same. This acidity would have negative effects on the body. Concluding that this discomfort is most likely due to acidic fluid moving from the stomach and into the esophagus, we are left with the next symptom that the pain was worse at night or after excretion. This can be due to the simple law of gravity, that when a person lies down the fluids from the stomach are more likely to pass through the sphincter and into the esophagus. The pain down his back after eating can also be contributed to a similar problem. The key factor I would like to focus on is ‘after eating’. When he would eat, food would need to pass through the digestive system; this...