[A case of gastric ulcer induced by Helicobacter heilmannii-like organism].

Recently, there was growing interest in a gastric spiral-shaped bacterium morphologically deviating from Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), which was classified as Helicobacter heilmannii (H. heilmannii). It rarely inhabits human species whereas the observation of structurally comparable bacteria in other mammals, including cats and dogs, is a commonplace. Therefore, it is now generally recognized that H. heilmannii is an animal Helicobacter, which is occasionally transmitted to man. H. heilmannii is usually associated with chronic gastritis. Here, we described a case of gastric ulcer caused by spiral bacteria morphologically identical to H. heilmannii. The patient complained of epigastric pain over a two day period. He took the gallbladder of a wild raccoon dog 7 days before. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy revealed multiple geographic gastric ulcers in the distal body and antrum. After eradication of another Helicobacter spp, H. heilmannii, the symptom resolved completely in 4 days. Eight weeks later, a follow-up endoscopy showed complete healing of the ulcer.