[A rare abdominal emergency: acute phlegmonous gastritis (author's transl)]

In the light of a series of recent observations and a personal case, the authors recall that acute phlegmonous gastritis is a rare disease usually secondary to a bucco-pharyngeal infective focus, characterised by an acute abdominal syndrome accompanied by a very severe infective context. Only laparotomy leads to the diagnosis. Since antibiotics, the mortality has regressed from more than 80% to less than 50%. The prognosis of the antral forms is much less serious than that of the diffuse forms with mortalities of 28% and 71% respectively. In antral gastritis the best therapeutic attitude is early antibiotic therapy associated with 2/3 gastrectomy.