Question

1. For food to pass into the stomach, it needs to pass through two sphincters. What are these two, What is the function of the second one (as in, the second sphincter the food would go through)? If this sphincter does not function properly, what medical issue could result?

Answer 1

The sphincters are the specialized muscles in the digestive system for the free flow of food that is to be digested and that has been partially digested food besides helping in preventing the back flow of food. The food has to pass through 2 spincters in the digestive system. They are:

1. Cardiac Spincter.
2. Pyloric Spincter.

​​​​​​​The cardiac sphincter is located between oesophagus and stomach. It helps in passing the food from oesophagus to stomach and preventing the back flow(reflux) of strong acid of stomach(HCl) into the oesophagus.

The pyloric sphincter is located between the stomach and the duodenum, which forms the starting point of the small intestine. The pyloric sphincter opens to allow partially digested food called as chyme to pass from the pylorus of stomach to the duodenum for further digestion and absorption of nutrients into the body.

Failure of pyloric sphincter causes gastric problems such as

• Bile reflux: Bile comes bavk upto oesophagus causing upper abdominal pain.
• Gastroparesis: Delay in gastric emptying causing nausea and vomiting.
• Ulcers or tumors
• Pyloric stenosis where narrowing of the spincter takes place and causes vomitings especially in infants.