Journal of community hospital internal medicine perspectives
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J Community Hosp Intern Med Perspect · Jan 2015
Critical gastrointestinal bleed due to secondary aortoenteric fistula.
Secondary aortoenteric fistula (SAEF) is a rare yet lethal cause of gastrointestinal bleeding and occurs as a complication of an abdominal aortic aneurysm repair. Clinical presentation may vary from herald bleeding to overt sepsis and requires high index of suspicion and clinical judgment to establish diagnosis. Initial diagnostic tests may include computerized tomography scan and esophagogastroduodenoscopy. ⋯ A combination of MeSH terms and Boolean operators were used to device search strategy. In addition, a bibliography of clinically relevant articles was searched to find additional articles (Appendix A). The aim of this review is to provide a comprehensive update on the diagnosis, management, and prognosis of SAEF.
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J Community Hosp Intern Med Perspect · Jan 2015
Case ReportsTaking it to the next level: lumbar radiculopathy from thoracic nerve schwannoma.
Compression or irritation of the sciatic nerve and its branches, the common fibular and tibial nerves, causes sciatica which is a common syndrome characterized most often by radiating pain from the lower back down the legs and also manifesting as sensory and motor deficits. Sciatica is a common presentation of lumbosacral disc prolapse and degenerative disease of the lumbar spine in ambulatory settings. Schwannomas rarely cause sciatica; hence, it is seldom considered in evaluation of a patient with radiculopathy. ⋯ Thoracolumbar spine MRI revealed the schwannoma in the thoracic region. He recovered neurologic function after tumor excision. This case highlights the diagnostic challenge that may arise in evaluating a patient with lumbar radiculopathy, negative lumbosacral spine imaging, and failure of conservative therapy.