Iglesias MG, Ramos ME, Hernández SR, Ordoñez SLA

Language: Spanish
References: 14
Page: 234-238
PDF size: 442.24 Kb.

ABSTRACT

A 17-year old male with a 1-day history of non-specific and intermittent abdominal pain, accompanied by vomiting was admitted into the hospital. He had a background of the same symptoms throughout his life, treated with three laparotomies, supposedly due to intestinal occlusion syndrome, without findings that suggested an etiology of his symptoms. Due to the absence of clinical data and laboratory results to determine a specific etiology, a computed tomography scan was performed. The screen revealed a cystic-like lesion located at posterior mediastinum and a hidden spina bifida at S1 was discovered. The treatment was a thoracotomy with complete resection of the mass. A gastric mediastinal cyst was the definitive diagnosis. The cyst had chronic active peptic ulcers, superficial gastritis, and atrophic and follicular chronic gastritis. Non-specific abdominal pain is a common cause of hospital admission, and most of the times it has no apparent etiology. Gastric mediastinal cysts may be an atypical cause of non-specific abdominal pain, making the diagnosis difficult for the clinician. The differential diagnosis is broad, therefore in many cases suspicion of this disease is made mainly by imaging studies. The treatment of choice is total surgical excision of the cyst. Unfortunately there are few cases in which total excision can not be done, leading to other surgical approaches that may decrease the rate of success.

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