A CASE OF NON-SURGICAL PNEUMOPERITONIUM: GAS UNDER THE DIAPHRAGM
Abstract
A 58-year-old woman presented with an unexpected episode of vomiting and an acute abdomen.The patient mentioned a vague history of decreased appetite dyspepsia and constipation.
Abdominal X-Ray revealed gas under diaphragm. An Open laparotomy was carried out to
evacuate the free gas trapped under the diaphragm. The condition is almost always associated with
perforation of abdominal viscera and accumulation of air during surgical or gynaecological
procedures or peritoneal dialysis. In the reported case, laparotomy revealed no sign of perforation
in GIT, uterine fundus or fistulas and nor did the have patient have any history of surgical or
gynaecological procedures. This lead to suggestion of spontaneous or non-surgical
pneumoperitonium which is extremely rare. Extensive investigations revealed no known cause
pneumoperitonium making our case rare and unique.
Keywords: pneumoperitonium; non-surgical pneumoperitonium, diaphragm, pneumoperitonei
References
Guillem P. Radiologic pneumoperitoneum without perforation
of a hollow viscus. J Chir (Paris) 2002;139(1):5-15.
Sakurai Y, Hikichi M, Isogaki J, Furuta S, Sunagawa R,
Inaba K, et al. Pneumatosis cystoides intestinalis associated
with massive free air mimicking perforated diffuse
peritonitis. World J Gastroenterol 2008;14:6753-6.
Lovecek M, Herman J, Svach I, Gryga A, Duda M. Postcoital
pneumoperitoneum after hysterectomy. Surg Endosc
;15(1):98.
Karaman A, Demirbilek S, Akin M, Gürünlüoğlu K, Irşi C.
Does pneumoperitoneum always require laparotomy? Report
of six cases and review of the literature. Pediatr Surg Int
;21:819-24.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Journal of Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad is an OPEN ACCESS JOURNAL which means that all content is FREELY available without charge to all users whether registered with the journal or not. The work published by J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad is licensed and distributed under the creative commons License CC BY ND Attribution-NoDerivs. Material printed in this journal is OPEN to access, and are FREE for use in academic and research work with proper citation. J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad accepts only original material for publication with the understanding that except for abstracts, no part of the data has been published or will be submitted for publication elsewhere before appearing in J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad. The Editorial Board of J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad makes every effort to ensure the accuracy and authenticity of material printed in J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad. However, conclusions and statements expressed are views of the authors and do not reflect the opinion/policy of J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad or the Editorial Board.
USERS are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.
AUTHORS retain the rights of free downloading/unlimited e-print of full text and sharing/disseminating the article without any restriction, by any means including twitter, scholarly collaboration networks such as ResearchGate, Academia.eu, and social media sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Scholar and any other professional or academic networking site.