[Clinical study of Mallory-Weiss syndrome in the aged patients over 75 year--mainly five cases induced by the endoscopic examination].

Cases of Mallory-Weiss syndrome aged over 75 year were analyzed with regard to their clinical features. In a 5-year period, there were 9 such cases, representing 19% of the total number of Mallory-Weiss syndrome cases. Four patients had a history of retching or vomiting, but in the other 5 patients, Mallory-Weiss tears occurred during endoscopic examination with slight vomiting reflex or even almost vomiting reflex. The latter cases had a spindle-shaped tear which was located on the lesser curvature at the cardia of the stomach. All patients were managed conservatively by observation without endoscopic hemostatic procedure, because the amount of bleeding was small. The 5 patients were thin and three of them had chronic atrophic gastritis. Mucosal weakness is an important etiologic factor in aged patients who develop Mallory-Weiss syndrome.