[Perforated gastric ulcer in the child: a rare complication, a case report].

UNLABELLED: Perforated gastric ulcer is unusual in children. We report a case in a girl with an unexpected evolution.

CASE REPORT: A 13-year-old girl was admitted for abdominal pain. She had no particular personal history but her father had a perforated ulcer. On admission she was not painful, her abdomen was soft on palpation. The white blood cell count was 1.7 x 10(3)/mm3. A right pneumoperitoneum was seen on an abdominal X-ray film. Because of her good general status and the normalization of the abdominal X ray film six hours later, no surgical exploration was performed. On the fourth day, a gastrointestinal endoscopy showed an anterior gastric ulcer which was perforated. Biopsies did not isolate H. pylori. The patient was given a treatment with amoxicillin-metronidazole (7 d) and oméprazole (7 weeks). An endoscopic control, one month later, showed a total healing of the gastric ulcer.

CONCLUSION

Peptic ulcerations and their complications are underdiagnosed in childhood. This could lead to delay in diagnosis or inappropriate treatment specially in case of perforation.