[Acute abdomen with irreversible shock, a rare but typical complication of hemochromatosis]

Acute abdomen, irreversible shock and sudden death are a typical although infrequent complication in patients with hemochromatosis. The author presents a further case of this syndrome and discusses the two leading pathogenetic interpretations described in the literature: sudden release of ferritin, and endotoxin shock. Clinical and post-mortem findings from this patient and a review of 19 cases from the literature suggest that most patients with this syndrome die from a primary bacterial peritonitis with gram negative sepsis and endotoxin shock.