How Is The Digestive System Affected By Scleroderma?
Scleroderma can affect organs in the digestive system just as it could affect any other organ. The weakening would usually begin in the esophagus then work its way down into the intestines. If the esophagus is affected by scleroderma, the patient will have difficulty having food pushed down which is a result of scleroderma interfering with peristalsis. After that, the next organ to be affected would usually be the stomach.
When scleroderma affects the stomach, this would usually involve digesting problems that could later result to further complications. This would happen especially when scleroderma would begin to develop in other digestive organs such as the intestines and the liver. While damages can be limited, effects of scleroderma cannot be reversed. However, treatment is possible.
How Can This Be Treated?
Scleroderma has no known cause and with that, there is no single cure that can reverse the effects of all cases of scleroderma. Treatment for scleroderma is case specific and the approach to treating it is more focused on limiting damage and relieving a patient from symptoms rather than attempting to completely remove scleroderma from a patient. Treatment can be in the form of medications, rehabilitation therapies or surgery which would depend on the case the patient is suffering.
This case of scleroderma is quite severe and could lead to a fatality however with careful medications; it is very possible for a case of gastro-intestinal involvement of scleroderma to be treated. Various medications such as anti-secretory agents, pro-motility agents and bacteria suppressing antibiotics have been proven to effectively treat some cases of gastro-intestinal involvement in scleroderma.