What causes excessive belching after a biliary stent insertion?
Patient: mom just had a biliary stent for pancreatic cancer stage 2. No mets but the distal common bile duct was obstructed. She is healthy except for thyroid disease (Hashimotos). She has had excessive belching causing a lot of pain in her belly prior to being able to release the air. What is causing the belching? Doctor: A lot of belching means that the pancreatic cancer, besides obstructing the distal common bile duct has also started to obstruct the duodenum (the part of the small intestine that drains the stomach). This can be ascertained by an upper GI endoscopy. Also, if it continues or progresses to vomiting, she may require a duodenal stent. At the same time, i Hope she is undergoing some form of anti-cancer treatment for her disease since pancreatic cancer stage 2 is potentially curable.