Phlegmonous gastritis: A rare entity as a differential diagnostic of an acute abdomen. Description of a case and a bibliographic review.

ABSTRACT

Phlegmonous gastritis is a rare bacterial infection of the gastric wall, which progress rapidly. It is characterized by a purulent inflammation that can affect the entire gastrointestinal tract and presents a high mortality rate. We are reporting a case of phlegmonous gastritis in an HIV-seropositive man successfully treated with antibiotics. Moreover, a review of the English andSpanish literature is carried out, from 1980 to the present time.The most frequently involved microorganism is Streptococcus spp. (57 %), but the polimicrobial infection is also frequent (17 %). The most important symptom is the intensive epigastric pain associated with vomits and most cases were diagnosed by CT and/or fibrogastroscopy. There are many existing risk factors described.The main one is the immunesuppression, although in 40 % of the cases no risk factors were identified. The global mortality is 27 % without identifying significant differences between antibiotics and surgical treatment, for that reason it is recommended to initiate antibiotic treatment right from the beginning and postponing surgery for the refractory cases and complications.