global inertia

[docbess]

My wife is currently experiencing global inertia - inertia in both small and large bowel.  We have been to numerous doctors for this problem.  She experiences bloating and distension after she eats and all x-rays show she is constipated in her large bowel.....after numerous transit studies it is found that she has delayed transit in both.  Stomach is fine as well as defacography.  She has been unresponsive to all medications given.  Only one she has not taken is reglan and all her doctors advise against it.  This has been going on for over a year now and my wife is an otherwise healthy 35 year old woman.  Doctors say that a colectomy may or may not help.  Any advice or experience on something similar would be helpful.....thanks

[CalGal]

I'm sorry to hear that your wife is experiencing this problem. I haven't heard of a lot of centers in the US that are studying the problem, but you may want to get a list of the major University hospitals and start contacting them to see if there are research studies being done and if your wife might fit the parameters of their studies. There was a group in Israel, I believe, who was working with colonic pacemakers about 2 years ago. I know they published a couple of papers on the results which seemed promising, but I don't know the status of the research at this point. You might want to go to www.pubmed.com and try using some search parameters to track down the studies. You might also want to contact that research group and see what's being done there.