No abstract

Case: An 88-year-old woman presented with abdominal pain, massive ascites, and acute kidney injury. She was clinically hypervolemic and the computed tomography attenuation value of the ascites was near that of water. Subsequent abdominocentesis revealed ammonia-smelling ascites fluid, leading to a suspicion of urinary tract injury, and a conclusive diagnosis of spontaneous bladder rupture was achieved using cystography.Outcome: The patient was managed conservatively with antibiotics, percutaneous drainage, and bladder catheter. As a result, she was discharged with normal renal function. Conclusion:The diagnosis of bladder rupture is difficult, and is rarely confirmed in the absence of a diagnostic suspicion. This case indicates that ascitic fluid odor, patient volume status, and the computed tomography attenuation value of ascites are potential indicators of bladder rupture.

A 76-year-old previously healthy Japanese man experienced severe diarrhea (8,000 mL per day) after undergoing laparotomy for small bowel obstruction and was diagnosed with Clostridium difficile infection. Although he developed a maculopapular rash secondary to the systemic absorption of enteral vancomycin (VCM), the patient was successfully treated with the continuous administration of VCM through a long intestinal tube placed in the terminal ileum. This method ensured the reliable delivery of VCM to the colon, while the continuous administration maintained high fecal levels of the drug. This treatment approach is an effective minimally invasive option for patients with severe diarrhea.

An 80-year-old man who had undergone distal gastrectomy and Billroth-II gastrojejunostomy 38 years previously, for a benign gastric ulcer, was diagnosed with remnant gastric cancer based on upper gastrointestinal endoscopy findings. He presented at our emergency department with acute-onset epigastric pain due to perforated remnant gastric cancer. Conservative medical management was selected, including nasogastric tube insertion, antibiotics, and proton pump inhibitors, because his peritonitis was limited to his epigastrium and his general condition was stable. Twenty-one days after the perforation occurred, curative total remnant gastrectomy and D2 lymphadenectomy were performed. Adhesion between the lateral segment of the liver and the dissected lesser curvature of the gastric remnant may have contributed to the peritonitis in this case, which was limited to the epigastrium. This is the first report of perforated remnant gastric cancer in which conservative treatment was effective prior to curative resection. The protocol reported here may be of use to other clinicians who may encounter this clinical entity in their practices.

Aim: Bladder ruptures are commonly misdiagnosed as gastrointestinal perforations or intestinal ischemia. If a diagnosis is made preoperatively, conservative treatment is a safe and effective option. We evaluated the validity of using the attenuation value of ascites, measured by non-contrast computed tomography (CT), to identify patients with bladder ruptures.Methods: A retrospective search of our hospital database identified 7 patients with confirmed bladder ruptures between 2007 and 2013. We also enrolled 18 patients with gastrointestinal perforations and 10 patients with intestinal ischemia with detectable ascites on abdominal CT that had undergone emergency exploratory laparotomy between 2007 and 2013. Between-group comparisons of attenuation values of ascites as obtained by non-contrast CT were evaluated.Results: All attenuation values were less than 10 Hounsfield units (HU) in bladder rupture patients. Moreover, the attenuation value of ascites in cases of bladder rupture (median, 5.7; range, 3.1-6.1) was significantly lower than in cases of gastrointestinal perforation (median, 14.7; range, 4.7-25.4) and intestinal ischemia (median, 13.3; range, 6.0-18.1) (P = 0.004 for both comparisons). Conclusion:Bladder rupture mimics gastrointestinal perforation and intestinal ischemia with acute kidney injury. Therefore, the diagnosis of bladder rupture using the attenuation value of ascites on non-contrast CT is both useful and highly significant. We suggest that bladder rupture be considered in the differential diagnosis of patients presenting with acute abdominal pain and attenuation values of ascites of less than 10 Hounsfield units.