Symptoms
Hemosuccus pancreaticus is a rare entity, and estimates of its rate are based on small case series. As a result, the diagnosis may easily be overlooked. The usual presentation of hemosuccus is the development of symptoms of upper or lower gastrointestinal bleeding, such as melena (or dark, black tarry stools), maroon stools, or hematochezia, which is frank rectal bleeding. The source of hemorrhage is usually not determined by standard endoscopic techniques, and the symptoms of the condition are usually grouped as a cause of obscure overt gastrointestinal hemorrhage. Over one-half of patients with hemosuccus also develop abdominal pain, usually located in the epigastrium, or uppermost part of the abdomen. The pain is described as being "crescendo-decrescendo" in nature, meaning that it increases and decreases in intensity slowly with time. This is thought to be due to transient blockage of the pancreatic duct from the source of bleeding, or from clots. If the source of the bleeding also involves obstruction of the common bile duct (such as with some tumours of the head of the pancreas), the patient may develop jaundice, or "silver stools", an uncommon finding of acholic stools mixed with blood.
Read more about this topic: Hemosuccus Pancreaticus
Famous quotes containing the word symptoms:
“There is one great fact, characteristic of this our nineteenth century, a fact which no party dares deny. On the one hand, there have started into life industrial and scientific forces which no epoch of former human history had ever suspected. On the other hand, there exist symptoms of decay, far surpassing the horrors recorded of the latter times of the Roman empire. In our days everything seems pregnant with its contrary.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“The human condition is such that pain and effort are not just symptoms which can be removed without changing life itself; they are the modes in which life itself, together with the necessity to which it is bound, makes itself felt. For mortals, the “easy life of the gods” would be a lifeless life.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)
“Protest, evasion, merry distrust, and a delight in mockery are symptoms of health: everything unconditional belongs in pathology.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)