This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citing articles on Web of Science (6)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

An Unusual Cause for Massive Melena

FRED J. WOLMA, Jr., M.D.; JOHN B. LYNCH, M.D.

AMA Arch Surg. 1959;78(1):71-74.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Leukemic infiltration of tissues of the body may occur late in the course of leukemia and result in bleeding from the gums or the gastrointestinal tract, or purpura. The bleeding is frequently a result of secondary thrombocytopenia. However, it is unusual for leukemic infiltration of the colon to produce massive melena. The purpose of this paper is to report a case in which massive melena resulted from leukemic infiltration of the colon.

Leukemia as a cause of massive melena has been reported only rarely in the literature. Thompson and McGuffin⁵ made a detailed study of a large series of patients with melena. Of the 293 cases studied, none had melena secondary to leukemia. Rives and Emmett⁴ reviewed 129 cases of massive melena and found 1 case in which the cause was leukemia. Waterson⁶ reviewed 170 cases of hematemesis and melena and found 1 case which was due . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
Galveston, Texas

From Department of Surgery, University of Texas, Medical Branch.

Footnotes
Submitted for publication July 8, 1958.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?