Regurgitation
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Regurgitation is the term used to describe any of the following:
Digestion-related
Regurgitation is the controlled flow of stomach contents back into the oesophagus and mouth.
Regurgitation is used by a number of species to feed their young. This is typically in circumstances where the young is at a fixed location and a parent must forage or hunt for food, especially under circumstances where the carriage of small prey would be subject to robbing by other predators or the whole prey is larger than can be carried to a den or nest.
It is a normal and voluntary process unlike the complex vomiting reflex in response to toxins.
Heart condition
Regurgitation is blood flow in the opposite direction from normal, as the backward flowing of blood into the heart or between heart chambers. Can be categorized by:
- aortic: the backflow of blood from the aorta into the left ventricle, owing to insufficiency of the aortic semilunar valve; it may be chronic or acute.
- mitral: the backflow of blood from the left ventricle into the left atrium, owing to insufficiency of the mitral valve; it may be acute or chronic, and is usually due to mitral valve prolapse, rheumatic heart disease, or a complication of cardiac dilatation.
- pulmonic: the backflow of blood from the pulmonary artery into the right ventricle, owing to insufficiency of the pulmonic semilunar valve.
- tricuspid: the backflow of blood from the right ventricle into the right atrium, owing to imperfect functioning (insufficiency) of the tricuspid valve.
- valvular: regurgitation of the blood through the orifices of the heart valves owing to imperfect closing of the valves; see aortic, mitral, pulmonic, and tricuspid.
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