Ruptured submucosal gastric artery microaneurysm

A patient with massive upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage from a ruptured submucosal gastric artery microaneurysm is described. Intraoperative diagnosis was made and wedge resection of the lesion resulted in survival of the patient. Forty-two cases in this entity have been reported in the literature, with nonoperative therapy being uniformly fatal; there were only four cases of successful surgical management. An increased awareness of this entity in cases of unexplained gastrointestinal hemorrhage is the key to diagnosis and successful management.