Near-total gastric necrosis caused by acute gastric dilatation.

Gastric dilatation caused by psychogenic polyphagia or bulimia may, under extreme circumstances, progress to total gastric necrosis. We have described a patient in whom acute abdominal symptoms and signs developed while he was receiving psychiatric treatment. Laparotomy showed massive gastric dilatation with near-total infarction. Total gastrectomy with cervical esophagostomy, feeding and decompressing jejunostomies, and wide drainage of the gastric bed were done. After staged reconstruction, recovery was uneventful.