A case of obscure gastrointestinal bleeding in a 18-year-old woman
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Abstract
In this report, we discuss a case of an 18 year-old woman with obscure gastrointestinal bleeding (OGIB) revealed to be originated from a Meckel’s diverticulum.
OGIB is defined as persistent or recurrent bleeding from a difficult to identify source and accounts for approximately 5% of all cases of GI bleeding. Lesions in the small bowel most commonly cause it. OGIB represents one of the most challenging disorders faced by gastroenterologists due to its evasive nature and difficulty in identifying the exact source of the bleeding. Recent technological advances such as capsule endoscopy, balloon-assisted enteroscopy, spiral enteroscopy and CTE have significantly improved our ability to diagnose and manage these patients.
We report this case to assess the importance of laparoscopy that nowadays is the only procedure that successfully detected the site of bleeding in up to 100% of cases.