A set of symptoms attributed to a disorder of digestion and usually focused upon the stomach — upper abdominal pain or discomfort, nausea, flatulence, ‘heartburn’. Such problems may indeed be due to disordered function in the stomach itself, but also or alternatively in the oesophagus, liver, gall bladder, duodenum, or pancreas.

— Stuart Judge

See alimentary system; indigestion.

The Oxford Companion to the Body. Copyright © 2001, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.