Intestinal gas

Patients reporting 'gas' represent a unique challenge for the physician. Because simple tests that can objectively document a gaseous abnormality are lacking, the physician is forced to rely on the patient's perception of the nature and severity of the problem. A discrepancy exists between patients' beliefs and the results of investigative studies. Subjects fervently believe that excessive gas is the cause of a variety of symptoms, but the few studies of gaseous patients suggest that gas usually has a minor role in these symptoms. Furthermore, enormous gaps in our understanding of the pathogenesis of gaseous symptoms help make treatment of these problems highly unsatisfactory.