Perforated Peptic Ulcer Combined with Posttraumatic Diaphragmatic Hernia in Third Gestation Trimester: a Clinical Case

Background. Gastric and duodenal ulcers are extremely rare in pregnancy, according to published literature. Peptic ulcer is found in 1 per 4,000 pregnant women, a figure probably underestimated due to its hampered diagnosis in pregnancy. Pregnancy peptic ulcer is considered less expected. Perforated gastric and duodenal ulcers comprise about 1.5 % of total acute abdominal diseases, and the perforation rate in ulcer patients ranges within 5–15 %. This complication afflicts the ages of 20–40 years in men much more frequently than in women. Three perforation types occur: free into abdominal cavity (87 %), contained (9 %), into lesser omentum and retroperitoneal tissue (4 %).

Materials and methods. The clinical case describes surgical management of posttraumatic diaphragmatic hernia-comorbid perforated gastric ulcer in a pregnant woman in third trimester. Surgery with postoperative patient management enabled for a favourable outcome.

Results and discussion. Perforation-entailing gastric and duodenal ulcers in pregnant women have received negligible attention due to rarity in clinical practice. Paul et al. described 14 cases of duodenal perforation in pregnancy, all fatal.

Conclusion. Early diagnosis of surgical pathology during gestation is still difficult contributing to the development of severe complications associated with high mortality. The patient’s admission to a level III interspecialty hospital was key to enable a timely consilium-driven decision of caesarean intervention for saving the child, diagnosing intraoperatively life-threatening complicated surgical diseases and opting for radical surgery that ended in a favourable outcome.

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