Computed tomographic evaluation of gastric emphysema--a report of three cases

We present three patients, one male and two females, who had gastric emphysema demonstrated by computed tomography (CT) by chance. All patients had adenocarcinoma of the gastric antrum resulting in gastric outlet obstruction. We have classified these as the obstructive type of gastric emphysema. An additional cause in two of our patients could be a recent biopsy at UGI endoscopy. In one patient the emphysema was localized and the diagnosis could only have been made by CT. The two other patients had the usual pattern of extensive mural gas along the greater and lesser curvature of the stomach while dissection of gas into the retroperitoneum was present in one of them. There were no systemic effects attributable to the emphysema in all three patients. This reinforces the belief that gastric emphysema is not infective in origin.