What causes the sphincter of oddi to go into spasem

Thanks to all who replies to my question. It is my daughter who suffers from this flaring up of this sphincter. The pain is acute and crippling, it flares up 2 to 3/year. Our local hospital controls the pain but does not cure the problem. What can be done ?

This can happen to people with pancreatitis or even gall bladder problems.

What is the sphincter of oddi? :confused:

What is the sphincter of oddi? :confused:

It is a muscular valve that controls the flow of digestive juices.

So it spasming, does that cause heartburn or an-l leakage? Is this something painful or just bothersome (ie. Twitching eye muscle)?

Here is a very interesting article about it.

Gastroenterology (http://intmed.muhealth.org/gast/patient_resource/commondisorders/sphincteroddi.html)

How old is your daughter?

One treatment is partial cut of the sphincter. The procedure is done during endoscopy. Before undergoing this, a thorough research and discussion with a gastrologist is recommended.