Gastric dilatation in a girl with former obesity and atypical anorexia nervosa.
OBJECTIVE
This case report describes a 16 year-old girl of normal weight with acute gastric dilatation due to binge eating habits.


RESULTS
Psychiatric assessment revealed a history of obesity and later atypical anorexia nervosa, but no current diagnosis of a typical eating disorder. After one month of daily binges a food excess was followed by an acute massive gastric dilatation which led to a laparotomy.


CONCLUSIONS
Clinicians should be aware that abnormal eating habits may cause severe somatic complications even in patients of normal weight who are not currently diagnosed as having a typical eating disorder. Careful investigation of eating habits might have resulted in therapeutic gastric emptying at an earlier stage, thus avoiding the need for surgery in our patient.
Holtkamp
Kristian
K
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Technical University Aachen, Germany. Kristian.Holtkamp@kjp.rwth-aachen.de
Mogharrebi
Rubin
R
Hanisch
Charlotte
C
Schumpelick
Volker
V
Herpertz-Dahlmann
Beate
B
D000293:Adolescent; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D002032:Bulimia / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D013271:Gastric Dilatation / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery; D005746:Gastric Emptying / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy / Q000379:methods; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index