An Exceptional Case of Acute Respiratory Failure Caused by Intra-Thoracic Gastric Perforation Secondary to Overeating

Alessandro Di Luca, Enzo Ricci, Vincenzo M. Grassi, Vincenzo Arena, Antonio Oliva

Risultato della ricerca: Contributo in rivistaArticolo in rivistapeer review

3 Citazioni (Scopus)

Abstract

An 18-year-old female patient arrived at the emergency department complaining of abdominal pain and fullness after a heavy meal. Physical examination revealed she was filthy and cover in feces, and she experienced severe abdominal distension. She died in ED and a diagnostic autopsy examination was requested. At external examination, the pathologist observed a significant dilation of the anal sphincter and suspected sexual assault, thus alerting the Judicial Authority who assigned the case to our department for a forensic autopsy. During the autopsy, we observed anal orifice expansion without signs of violence; food was found in the pleural cavity. The stomach was hyper-distended and perforated at three different points as well as the diaphragm. The patient was suffering from anorexia nervosa with episodes of overeating followed by manual voiding of her feces from the anal cavity (thus explaining the anal dilatation). The forensic pathologists closed the case as an accidental death.
Lingua originaleEnglish
pagine (da-a)292-294
Numero di pagine3
RivistaJournal of Forensic Sciences
Volume64
DOI
Stato di pubblicazionePubblicato - 2019

Keywords

  • anorexia nervosa
  • autopsy
  • bulimia
  • forensic pathology
  • forensic science
  • gastric perforation
  • overeating
  • sexual abuse

Fingerprint

Entra nei temi di ricerca di 'An Exceptional Case of Acute Respiratory Failure Caused by Intra-Thoracic Gastric Perforation Secondary to Overeating'. Insieme formano una fingerprint unica.

Cita questo