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.
Department of Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905.
E R
ER
Cary
W J
WJ
Tremaine
P M
PM
Banks
D M
DM
Nagorney
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