[A rare etiology of anasarca in Africa: gastric lymphoma]

The authors report the case of a young 16 year-old woman from Gabon hospitalized because of edemas. The laboratory tests show a hypoproteinemia of 32 g/l with hypoalbuminemia of 9.4 g/l. After ruling out a renal, cardiac or hepatic etiology as well as malnutrition, the endoscopic exploration of the G.I tract, performed because of abdominal pain, enables to make the diagnosis: malignant, non-Hodgkin gastric lymphoma, confirmed by biopsies during the procedure. Edemas and hypoproteinemia were related to an exudative enteropathy secondary to ulcerations of the gastric mucosa.