[Arteriovenous fistula after partial gastrectomy. A case report.]

Portal arteriovenous fistulas are uncommon and are most often seen following trauma to the abdomen. In a few cases they have occurred as complications of abdominal surgery. In this report we present a 74 year old man with a fistula between the left gastric artery and vein, secondary to a Billroth I partial gastrectomy that was performed 32 years earlier. The patient complained of a diffuse abdominal pain for two weeks and mild cardiac failure symptoms. An epigastric bruit was heard and the abdomen was distended with transudatic ascitic fluid. The fistula was diagnosed by Doppler-ultrasound and the diagnosis confirmed by angiography. At laparotomy the fistula was excised and the patient's symptoms subsequently subsided.