Gastrolithiasis with incomplete intestinal obstruction in the perioperative period of percutaneous transluminal coronary intervention: One case report

Abstract

Gastrolithiasis is one of the uncommon clinical diseases with low incidence and its clinical manifestations are not typical. It is easy to be ignored when combined with other medical diseases. In this paper we present a case of gastrolithiasis just after percutaneous transluminal coronary intervention (PCI), the patient suffered from unexplained persistent abdominal distention and pain with gastric retention, nausea and vomiting. The patient’s symptoms were similar to dyspepsia in the first 4 days, so gastrolithiasis wasn’t considered, and it became worse with an incomplete intestinal obstruction on the 5th day (for details of the timeline see Figure 1). After a series of examinations, the patient was diagnosed as gastrolithiasis, then after endoscopic removal while taking dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT), her condition rapidly improved and discharged after a week without any adverse events. Through following-up, the patient is very careful of diet and her digestive system symptoms seldom appear so far. So gastroscopy may be safe in the perioperative period of PCI with no history of upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB). We suggest that the possibility of gastrolithiasis should be considered to avoid adverse consequences when patients have persistent abdominal distention and abdominal pain with gastric retention, which is difficult to determine the causes.