Mallory-Weiss syndrome

Mallory–Weiss syndrome
Mallory–Weiss tear affecting the esophageal side of the gastroesophageal junction
Classification and external resources
Specialty	gastroenterology
ICD-10	K22.6
ICD-9-CM	530.7
DiseasesDB	7803
MedlinePlus	000269
eMedicine	ped/1359
Patient UK	Mallory–Weiss syndrome
MeSH	D008309
[]

Mallory–Weiss syndrome or gastro-esophageal laceration syndrome refers to bleeding from a laceration in the mucosa at the junction of the stomach and esophagus. This is usually caused by severe vomiting because of alcoholism or bulimia, but can be caused by any conditions which causes violent vomiting and retching such as food poisoning. The syndrome presents with painful hematemesis. The laceration is sometimes referred to as a Mallory-Weiss tear.

It is often associated with alcoholism and eating disorders and there is some evidence that presence of a hiatal hernia is a predisposing condition. Forceful vomiting causes tear of the mucosa at the junction.

NSAID abuse is also a rare association. The tear involves mucosa and submucosa but not the muscular layer (contrast to Boerhaave syndrome which involves all the layers). The mean age is more than 60 and 80% are men.Hyperemesis gravidarum, which is severe morning sickness associated with vomiting and retching in pregnancy, is also a known cause of Mallory-Weiss tear.

Mallory–Weiss syndrome often presents as an episode of vomiting up blood (hematemesis) after violent retching or vomiting, but may also be noticed as old blood in the stool (melena), and a history of retching may be absent.

In most cases, the bleeding stops spontaneously after 24–48 hours, but endoscopic or surgical treatment is sometimes required and rarely the condition is fatal. There won't be any abdominal pain.

Definitive diagnosis is by endoscopy.

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Wikipedia