Child With Folded Stomach, Rare Gastric Volvulus Condition Gets Saved by Surgeon; What Exactly Is This Potentially Life-Threatening Condition?

According to doctors, a girl with a folded stomach was saved by timely diagnosis and surgery.

Child With Folded Stomach

In a rare condition, the stomach of a 12-year-old girl in Ethiopia folded over on itself. This left her in great pain for two days and in dire need of receiving emergency treatment.

The condition developed by the girl is a rare and potentially life-threatening one known as gastric volvulus, wherein a portion or the whole stomach rotates by over 180 degrees. Because of this, the girl's abdomen became swollen and tender. It also stopped her from being able to properly breathe or pass stool.

The girl was able to survive the condition thanks to a timely diagnosis and prompt surgery. Six days post-surgery, she could already leave the hospital. Her case was documented in the "Mesenteroaxial gastric volvulus in a 12 Year female child: A rare case report" study.

What Is Gastric Volvulus?

Around 30% to 50% of patients affected by gastric volvulus end up dying. The condition can lead to complete obstruction in the stomach, blocking food movement through the organ and oxygen and blood flow to the stomach and back to the heart, which could lead to tissue deaths.

Holes may also form in the stomach that is folded, leading to the leaking of blood and other fluids. Because of this, the heart may find it more difficult to pump blood. It may also result in blood poisoning.

The condition was first described in 1886. It is typically diagnosed among individuals over 50 years of age and among children less than 1 year old. While the number of people experiencing the condition remains unclear to researchers, the condition is believed to be very rare.

It is typically caused by a paraesophageal hernia, wherein a portion of the stomach pushes into the chest cavity through a diaphragm opening. These hernias can make the stomach susceptible or vulnerable to being twisted.

In the specific case of the girl, her condition resulted from the stomach folding over itself, similar to how a clam shell shuts. This exact symptom takes place in one-third of patients with the general condition. These cases are typically observed among young children and are due to looseness in the ligaments that usually anchor the stomach within the abdomen. In the girl's case, the ligaments that linked her stomach with the middle and horizontal parts of her large intestine were not stable.

Gastric volvulus is usually diagnosed and picked up through imaging methods, including X-rays or CT scans. However, in the girl's case, the hospital's CT scans were not functioning. Hence, after initial abdomen examinations, she was rushed to the operating room with no imaging and got diagnosed as the surgery went on.

The condition is typically treated by the surgical untwisting of the stomach and the securing of the abdominal wall so that future folding can be prevented. In cases where the risk is high, the patient's stomach may also be relieved by a tube inserted in the patient's nose.

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