Mallory-Weiss syndrome secondary to cis-platinum chemotherapy: an unusual complication

The Mallory-Weiss syndrome is a relatively infrequent cause of digestive tract bleeding and most cases have been described in alcoholics. Nonoperative management is frequently successful. We present here a case of sudden onset of wretching and vomiting after IV infusion of cis-platinum for recurrent carcinoma of the uterine cervix in which the patient had profuse hematemesis secondary to three posterior gastroesophageal tears requiring operative intervention after failure of nonsurgical management. This is an unusual complication of antineoplastic chemotherapy and its prevention is emphasize in this paper.