Spirocheatal shock syndrome.

In this paper we describe a clinical scenario of high grade fever, jaundice, hypotension and multi-organ dysfunction syndrome in a 30-year-old homeless male without radiological biliary obstruction. He was brought to our hospital by the emergency medical service of Saudi Arabia (Red Crescent) from the street. After an initial resuscitation he proved to have Borrelia recurrentis. The clinical course during his hospital stay was not a smooth one, but the patient finally improved. After 20 days of hospitalisation, he was discharged in a stable condition. The present case underlines the need for high clinical vigilance, even in a non-endemic area.

Esophagitis dissecans superficialis presenting with massive haematemesis in a patient with bullous pemphigoid.

The stratified squamous epithelial lining of the esophagus is similar to that of the skin, and occasionally conditions that affect the skin tend to have esophageal manifestations. Autoimmune dermatological conditions that present with blisters are referred to as bullous dermatoses and have been found to rarely present with esophageal involvement. Esophageal epithelium is thought to be involved in rare occasions because of its identical epithelial lining to the skin and tends to be more frequent among patients with pemphigus vulgaris than in those with pemphigoid. Common symptoms from esophageal involvement in bullous dermatoses may include heartburn, odynophagia or dysphagia. Rarely, it may present with vomiting of sloughed cast of esophageal mucosa or haematemesis. We present S A, a 47 year old female who was on outpatient treatment in 2010 at King Fahad Medical City for bullous pemphigoid but developed progressive odynophagia with massive haematemesis. She was admitted and resuscitated, and endoscopy revealed sloughing of esophageal mucosa and bleeding in keeping with esophagitis dissecans superficialis. Although association of esophageal dissecans superficialis with pemphigus vulgaris has been sparsely reported; to our knowledge its association with bullous pemphigoid as in our case has been rarely reported in English medical literature.

Benign intermittent gastric outlet obstruction in an elderly: endoscopic management and brief review.

We describe the clinical scenario in an 80 year old female who presented with history of epigastric discomfort and postprandial fullness of three weeks duration without any alarming symptoms. On upper GI endoscopy she was found to have gastric polyp with a long stalk which was partially obstructing her pyloric ring giving rise to features of intermittent gastric outlet obstruction. Polypectomy was done with complete relief of symptoms. She is following our clinic for last 6 months now. Although possibility of malignant etiology in gastric outlet obstruction ranks high in the elderly some patients are lucky to have a benign cause as the index case. Report of the case and brief review is presented.

Benign Intermittent Gastric Outlet Obstruction in an Elderly: Endoscopic Management and Brief Review

We describe the clinical scenario in an 80 year old female who presented with history of epigastric discomfort and postprandial fullness of three weeks. duration without any alarming symptoms. On upper GI endoscopy she was found to have gastric polyp with a long stalk which was partially obstructing her pyloric ring giving rise to features of intermittent gastric outlet obstruction Polypectomy was done with complete relief of symptoms .She is following our clinic for last 6 months now. Although possibility of malignant etiology in gastric out let obstruction ranks high in the elderly some patients are lucky to have a benign cause as the index case. Report of the case and brief review is presented

Progressive Multifocal Leucoencephalopathy: Report of two diverse cases.

Progressive Multifocal Leucoencephalopathy (PML) is a rare neurological disorder. The clinical suspicion about this disease in the setting of an immunosuppressive patient even in presence of vague neurological symptoms has to be very high. We describe here two cases of PML a post renal transplant patient and second elderly patient with no underlying immunosuppression.

Omeprazole as adjuvant therapy to endoscopic combination injection sclerotherapy for treating bleeding peptic ulcer.

BACKGROUND: Therapeutic endoscopy has provided a new means of treating bleeding peptic ulcers. Additional medical therapy may enhance the therapeutic benefit. Hemostasis is highly pH dependent and is severely impaired at low pH. Proton pump inhibitors, by achieving a significantly higher inhibition of gastric acidity, may improve the therapeutic outcomes after endoscopic treatment of ulcers. PATIENT AND METHODS: We enrolled 166 patients with hemorrhage from duodenal, gastric, or stomal ulcers and signs of recent hemorrhage, as confirmed by endoscopy. Twenty-six patients had ulcers with an arterial spurt, 41 patients had active ooze, 37 had a visible vessel, and 62 patients had an adherent clot. All patients received endoscopic injection sclerotherapy using 1:10,000 adrenaline and 1% polidocanol and were randomly assigned to receive omeprazole (40 mg orally) every 12 hours for 5 days or an identical-looking placebo. The outcome measures used were recurrent bleeding, surgery, blood transfusion, and hospital stay. RESULTS: Six (7%) of 82 patients in the omeprazole group had recurrent bleeding, as compared with 18 (21%) in the placebo group (P = 0.02). Two patients in the omeprazole group and 7 patients in the placebo group needed surgery to control their bleeding (P = 0.17). One patient in the omeprazole group and 2 patients in the placebo group died (P = 0.98). Twenty-nine patients (35%) in the omeprazole group and 61 patients (73%) in the placebo group received blood transfusions (P <0.001). The average hospital stay was 4.6 +/- 1.1 days in the omeprazole group and 6.0 +/- 0.7 days in the placebo group (P <0.001). CONCLUSION: The addition of oral omeprazole to combination injection sclerotherapy decreases the rate of recurrent bleeding, reduces the need for surgery and transfusion, and shortens the hospital stay for patients with stigmata of recent hemorrhage.