¹Dhairya A. Lakhani, ²Yousaf B. Hadi, ¹Mary L. Cannon

¹Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506; ²Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506.

Correspondence: Dhairya A. Lakhani, MD, Department of Radiology, West Virginia University, 1 Medical Center Drive, Morgantown, WV 26506, Email: Dhairya.Lakhani@hsc.wvu.edu

Citation: Dhairya A. Lakhani (2020) Lactobezoar: A Rare Cause of Partial Gastric Outlet Obstruction.  Journal of Gastrectomy Lymphadenectomy Splenectomy Cholecystectomy, 1(1); 1-2

Copyright: © 2020, Dhairya A. Lakhani, Yousaf B. Hadi, Mary L. Cannon. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

BACKGROUND

A 37-day-old male with normal gestation was brought to the office for management of acute onset of vomiting and bloating. The child was a febrile and hemodynamically stable. Initial laboratory investigations were unremarkable. Focused abdomen ultrasound was performed which showed a solid lobulated heterogenous mass with punctate internal echogenic foci, near the gastric antrum (Figure A) and a normal pylorus (Figure B). Following which, upper GI series with follow-through study was performed which demonstrated a large debris ball (Figures C and D), that depicts a lactobezoar, which was first noted in the gastric fundus, but with change in patient positioning it straddled the antro-pyloric junction and partially obstructed the gastric outlet. Following the diagnosis, the patient was switched to soy formula, following day patient had an expulsion of a large ball of mucus encased in white strings, confirming the diagnosis of Lactobezoar. Lactobezoars are very rare, insoluble bezoars of the gut composed of milk and mucus components that invariably present in children. They result from coagulation of milk proteins and mucus that is influenced by impaired gastric function and content of feedings, and are more prevalent in pre-term, low birth weight infants and those who receive formula feeds [1-8].

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Authors have nothing to disclose

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