Endoscopic Treatment of a Gastric Dieulafoy’s Lesion

Abstract

Gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding is associated with significant mortality and a prompt search and treatment of the etiology is important. Upper GI endoscopy is the gold standard for diagnosis and treatment after initial resuscitation of the patient. In a majority of cases, the cause will be easily identified during endoscopy. Dieulafoy’s lesion, a caliber persistent artery in the submucosa, is a rare but important cause of intermittent painless massive GI bleeding. Due to its intermittent nature, it can easily be missed and often requires multiple endoscopic evaluations. We present a case of one such patient with subsequent endoscopic findings and successful treatment along with a review of the literature.

Keywords

• endoscopy; hematemesis; dieulafoy’s lesion; stomach