Isolated Crohn's disease of the stomach.
Crohn's disease can involve any portion of the digestive tract, but isolated gastric Crohn's disease is a rare entity. In the few previously reported cases, the inflammatory disorder has involved only a portion of the stomach. Herein we describe a patient with diffuse involvement of the entire stomach and an associated gastrosplenic fistula but no evidence of involvement elsewhere in the gastrointestinal tract. Usually, a patient with isolated Crohn's disease of the stomach will have the clinical symptoms of nausea, vomiting, and epigastric pain and radiographic evidence of a small contracted stomach (or, occasionally, a huge dilated stomach). Because the condition may suggest the presence of a malignant lesion and biopsy specimens often reveal nonspecific inflammation, surgical resection is usually necessary for diagnosis of isolated Crohn's disease of the stomach.
Cary
E R
ER
Department of Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905.
Tremaine
W J
WJ
Banks
P M
PM
Nagorney
D M
DM
D003424:Crohn Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D005402:Fistula / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology; D005747:Gastric Fistula / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D013158:Splenic Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology; D013270:Stomach / Q000473:pathology; D013272:Stomach Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology