MENETRIERS DISEASE - A RARE CONDITION OF THE STOMACH

The present reports on a 51-year-old patient who presented with weight loss, anaemia, hypalbuminaemia and ankle oedema, and was referred for laparotomy by a radiologist on the groundy of suspected carcinoma of the stomach suggested by an upper gastrointestinal x-ray series. Surge ry revealed excessively thickened rugae with gyrus-like, tortuous surf ace epithelium folds (histologically Menetrier's disease). A gastrecto my was performed, and the patient has been symptom-free and active eve r since. In addition, the author presents a review of the literature p ublished to date describing case reports of patients with Menetrier's disease. Menetrier's disease is a benign condition of the gastric muco sa in which gastric loss of albumin has been shown to be responsible f or hypalbuminaemia. The diagnostic procedure of choice is gastroscopy because upper gastrointestinal x-ray series cannot distinguish between carcinoma of the stomach with certainty. Since this is a chronic dise ase that does not respond to medication, treatment of choice today is (partial) gastrectomy dictated by the extent and severity of the findi ngs.