Hindawi Publishing Corporation
Case Reports in Surgery
Volume 2013, Article ID 984594, 4 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/984594
Case Report
Acute Dilatation, Ischemia, and Necrosis of
Stomach without Perforation
Manash Ranjan Sahoo, Anil T. Kumar, Sunil Jaiswal, and Siba Narayan Bhujabal
Department of Surgery, SCB. Medical College, Cuttack, Odisha 753007, India
Correspondence should be addressed to Manash Ranjan Sahoo; manash67@gmail.com
Received 28 July 2013; Accepted 27 August 2013
Academic Editors: A. Cho, S. Landen, and M. Picchio
Copyright © 2013 Manash Ranjan Sahoo et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.
Acute gastric dilatation can have multiple etiologies which may lead to ischemia of the stomach. Without proper timely diagnosis
and treatment, potentially fatal events such as gastric perforation, haemorrhage, and other serious complications can occur. Here we
present a 36-year-old man who came to the casualty with pain abdomen and distension for 2 days. Clinically, abdomen was asym-
metrically distended more in the lef hypochondrium and epigastrium region. Straight X-ray abdomen showed opacifed lef
hypochondrium with nonspecifc gaseous distension of bowel. Exploratory laparotomy revealed dilated stomach with patchy
gangrene over lesser curvature and fundic area. About 4 litres of brownish fuid along with semisolid undigested food particles was
sucked out (mainly undigested pieces of meat). Limited resection of gangrenous areas and primary repair were done along with
feeding jejunostomy. Necrosis of the stomach was confrmed on histopathology. Te patient recovered well and was discharged on
the tenth postoperative day.
1. Introduction
Acute gastric dilatation can have multiple etiologies which
may lead to ischemia of the stomach. Te etiologies are
lifestyle habits, underlying morbidities, acute necrotizing
infammation, acute vascular insufciency, and postoperative
complications. Without proper timely diagnosis and treat-
ment, potentially fatal events such as gastric perforation,
haemorrhage, and other serious complications can occur.
We here present a rare case of gastric dilatation leading to
patchy gangrenes on the surface of stomach and how timely
intervention was carried out.
2. Case Report
A 36-year-old male patient, referred from periphery hospital
with nasogastric tube in place, presented to the casualty with
pain abdomen and abdominal distension for two days which
was not relieved with conservative treatment. Two days ago
he had taken nonvegetarian meal twice, in increased quantity
than usual, within a short gap of 3 hours between those two
meals. Ten he had two episodes of vomiting 6 hours later.
His past history was not signifcant. He was not sufering
from any psychiatric illness or any co-morbidity like diabetes
and had not undergone any surgeries. His vital parameters
were within normal limits. Abdominal examination showed
more asymmetrical distension in lef hypochondrium and
epigastrium with tympanicity all over the abdomen without
signs of peritonitis. Straight X-ray abdomen showed opacifed
lef hypochondrium with nonspecifc gaseous distension of
bowel (Figure 1). Even afer conservative treatment, when
the distension and pain did not subside, he was planned for
exploratory laparotomy. Ryle’s tube aspiration in this case
was unproductive. On opening the abdomen through upper
midline incision it was found that stomach was dilated with
patchy gangrene at two areas, one on the lesser curvature
(Figure 2) and the other on the fundus of stomach (Figure 3).
Handling at the gangrenous area leads to perforation at the
lesser curvature which showed that there was impending per-
foration in that area. Trough this perforation about, 4 litres
of thick brown coloured fuid mixed with undigested food
particles (mainly undigested pieces of meat) was sucked out
(Figure 4) and removed. Te tip of the nasogastric tube now
became visible through the defect (Figure 5). Te gangrenous