Repetitive bleeding from a pheochromocytoma presenting as an abdominal emergency. Case report

Recurrent abdominal pain was the only subjective manifestation in a case of pheochromocytoma with retroperitoneal bleeding. At emergency laparotomy the tumor, showing signs of fresh and earlier bleeding, was extirpated. Sinus-type tachycardia was treated with beta-blockade peroperatively, while the diagnosis was still obscure, but hypertension did not follow. Meta-oxedrine and dopamine infusion was continued for 48 hours to sustain the blood pressure. Recovery was uneventful.