Spontaneous intramural hematoma of stomach

Background: Intramural hematoma occurs uncommonly in the gastrointestinal t ract and very rarely in the stomach, in case of a spontaneous gastric hemat oma, the few previously reported patients all had certain predisposing fact ors. However, truly spontaneous intramural hematoma of the stomach without an identifiable cause has not been reported before. Method: Emergency total gastrectomy was performed in a 49-year-old man with such pathology and the diagnosis was made postoperatively. Results: The patient required further laparotomy on day 10 for drainage and debridement of a subphrenic abscess. He recovered uneventfully from the second operation. After an extensive pat hological search, no predisposing factors could be found. The patient remai ns in good health 18 months after the operations. Conclusion: Spontaneous i ntramural gastric hematoma is extremely rare. But even rarer is when predis posing conditions or lesions are absent. Copyright (C) 2000 S. Karger AG, B asel.