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Vomiting (also called throwing up, emesis) is the forceful expulsion of the contents of one's stomach through the mouth and sometimes the nose. Undesired vomiting may result from many causes, ranging from gastritis or poisoning to brain tumors, or elevated intracranial pressure. The feeling that one is about to vomit is called nausea. It usually precedes, but does not always lead to vomiting. Antiemetics are sometimes necessary to suppress nausea and vomiting, and, in severe cases where dehydration develops, intravenous fluid may need to be administered to replace fluid volume. Vomiting is different from regurgitation, although the two terms are often used interchangeably. Regurgitation is the return of undigested food (that has not yet reached the stomach) back up the esophagus to the mouth. The causes of vomiting and regurgitation are generally different. Vomiting is coordinated in the vomiting center in the lateral medullary reticular formation in the pons. Receptors on the floor of the fourth ventricle of the brain represent a chemoreceptor trigger zone, known as the area postrema, stimulation of which can lead to vomiting. The area postrema is a circumventricular organ and as such lies outside the blood-brain barrier; it can therefore be stimulated by blood-borne drugs that can stimulate vomiting or inhibit it. There are various sources of input to the vomiting center
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