Wei XQ, Zou Y, Wu ZE, Abassa KK, Mao W, Tao J, Kang Z, Wen ZF, Wu B. Acute diarrhea and metabolic acidosis caused by tuberculous vesico-rectal fistula. World J Gastroenterol 2014; 20(41): 15462-15466 [PMID: 25386096 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v20.i41.15462]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Bin Wu, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Gastroenterology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, No. 600 Tianhe Road, Guangzhou 510630, Guangdong Province, China. binwu001@hotmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Case Report
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastroenterol. Nov 7, 2014; 20(41): 15462-15466 Published online Nov 7, 2014. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v20.i41.15462
Acute diarrhea and metabolic acidosis caused by tuberculous vesico-rectal fistula
Xiu-Qing Wei, Yan Zou, Zhi-E Wu, Kodjo-Kunale Abassa, Wei Mao, Jin Tao, Zhuang Kang, Zhuo-Fu Wen, Bin Wu
Xiu-Qing Wei, Zhi-E Wu, Kodjo-Kunale Abassa, Wei Mao, Jin Tao, Zhuo-Fu Wen, Bin Wu, Department of Gastroenterology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510630, Guangdong Province, China
Yan Zou, Zhuang Kang, Department of Radiology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510630, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Wei XQ and Zou Y contributed equally to this work; Wei XQ, Zou Y, Wu ZE, Abassa KK, Mao W, Tao J, Kang Z, Wen ZF and Wu B analyzed the data and diagnosed and treated the patient; Wei XQ and Wu B wrote the paper.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81272640; Guangdong Science and Technology Program, No. 2010B031200008 and No. 2012B031800043
Correspondence to: Bin Wu, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Gastroenterology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, No. 600 Tianhe Road, Guangzhou 510630, Guangdong Province, China. binwu001@hotmail.com
Telephone: +86-20-85253095 Fax: +86-20-85253336
Received: April 6, 2014 Revised: July 25, 2014 Accepted: September 29, 2014 Published online: November 7, 2014
Abstract
Acquired vesico-rectal fistula is an uncommon complication of pelvic malignant tumors, surgical injury, inflammatory disorders such as tuberculosis infection, radiotherapy and less commonly diverticulum of the urinary tract. The fistula is often identified by urinary tract abnormalities such as dysuria, recurrent urinary tract infection, pneumaturia, and fecaluria. Here, we report an unusual case of a patient with a vesico-rectal fistula of tuberculous origin, presenting with severe acute diarrhea, metabolic acidosis, hyperchloremia and hypokalemia while with only mild urinary tract symptoms. The patient was cured by tuberculostatic therapy.
Core tip: A tuberculous vesico-rectal fistula presenting with severe acute diarrhea, metabolic acidosis, hyperchloremia and hypokalemia while with only mild urinary tract symptoms is uncommon. Physicians should bear in mind that diarrhea and acidosis can be caused by vesico-rectal fistula as a rare cause and can be cured by tuberculostatic therapy.
