OBJECTIVE: This case report describes a 16 year-old girl of normal weight with acute gastric dilatation due to binge eating habits. METHOD AND RESULTS: Psychiatric assessment revealed a history of obesity and later atypical anorexia nervosa, but no current diagnosis of a typical eating disorder. After one month of daily binges a food excess was followed by an acute massive gastric dilatation which led to a laparotomy. DISCUSSION: Clinicians should be aware that abnormal eating habits may cause severe somatic complications even in patients of normal weight who are not currently diagnosed as having a typical eating disorder. Careful investigation of eating habits might have resulted in therapeutic gastric emptying at an earlier stage, thus avoiding the need for surgery in our patient. Copyright 2002 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
OBJECTIVE: This case report describes a 16 year-old girl of normal weight with acute gastric dilatation due to binge eating habits. METHOD AND RESULTS: Psychiatric assessment revealed a history of obesity and later atypical anorexia nervosa, but no current diagnosis of a typical eating disorder. After one month of daily binges a food excess was followed by an acute massive gastric dilatation which led to a laparotomy. DISCUSSION: Clinicians should be aware that abnormal eating habits may cause severe somatic complications even in patients of normal weight who are not currently diagnosed as having a typical eating disorder. Careful investigation of eating habits might have resulted in therapeutic gastric emptying at an earlier stage, thus avoiding the need for surgery in our patient. Copyright 2002 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.