ABSTRACT
Until recently, dyspepsia was defined as the presence of pain or discomfort centered in the upper abdomen (1). The Rome III committee refers to dyspepsia as a symptom or set of symptoms that is considered by most physicians to originate from the gastroduodenal region (2). Specific dyspeptic symptoms include postprandial fullness, early satiation, and epigastric pain or epigastric burning. Postprandial fullness is defined as an unpleasant sensation like the prolonged persistence of food in the stomach. Early satiation is defined as a feeling that the stomach is overfilled soon after starting to eat, out of proportion to the size of the meal being eaten, so that the meal cannot be finished. Previously, the term ‘‘early satiety’’ was used, but satiation is the correct term for the disappearance of the sensation of appetite during food ingestion. Epigastric refers to the region between the umbilicus and lower end of the sternum, and marked by the mid-clavicular lines. Pain refers to a subjective, unpleasant sensation, which, in some patients, creates a feeling that tissue damage is occurring. Epigastric pain may or may not have a burning quality. Patients with one or more of these symptoms are referred to as patients with dyspepsia (2).
