Retrograde cricopharyngeus dysfunction
medical condition
Retrograde cricopharyngeus dysfunction (R-CPD; also known as the inability to belch syndrome or abelchia) is a medical condition first identified by gastroenterologist Dr. Peter Kahrilas in 1987. However, the condition began to receive significant attention only following a 2019 report by ENT surgeon Dr. Robert Bastian that described a very high rate of symptomatic relief from injection of botulinum toxin into the cricopharyngeus muscle. Awareness of the condition has spread predominantly among patients themselves, rather than the medical community, via forums and social media. Awareness of the condition amongst primary care physicians and specialists remains low and patients report needing to employ online research to find specialists who are familiar with and can treat the condition.
Symptoms
The condition is characterised by chronic gastrointestinal symptoms relating to excessive gas retention, including abdominal bloating with distension, flatulence, audible gurgling sounds, and chest and abdominal discomfort. Some people with the condition are also unable to vomit, or can do so only with great difficulty. In most cases, inability to belch is a lifelong problem. R-CPD has a significant detrimental impact on patients' quality of life.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q122746266. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1987 and 2019.
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This entry incorporates text from “Retrograde cricopharyngeus dysfunction” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.