The Gastrointestinal System and the Elderly

Gastrointestinal diseases increase with age, and their clinical presentations are often confused by functional complaints and by pathophysiologic changes affecting the individual organs and the nervous system of the gastrointestinal tract. Hence, the statement that diseases of the aged are characterized by chronicity, duplicity, and multiplicity is most appropriate in regard to the gastrointestinal tract. Functional bowel distress represents the most common gastrointestinal disorder found in the elderly. Indeed, over one-half of all their gastrointestinal complaints are of a functional nature. This, of course, makes the diagnosis of organic complaints all the more difficult in the geriatric patient. In this chapter, we shall deal primarily with organic diseases afflicting the gastrointestinal tract of the elderly. To do otherwise would require the creation of a sizable textbook. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.