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PURPOSE: Groin injuries are a major diagnostic and therapeutic challenge in sports medicine. The aim of this review is to describe the clinical and surgical findings associated with an atypical lower abdominal pain syndrome occurring in elite ice hockey players. CASE SUMMARIES: Eleven professional ice hockey players from various National Hockey League teams were referred to the Montreal General Hospital between 1989 and 1996, suffering from atypical refractory pain and paraesthesia in the lower abdomen. Despite the use of conventional investigative procedures such as physical examination, ultrasound, bone scan, computed tomography scan, and magnetic resonance imaging scan, preoperative findings were consistently negative. Operative findings revealed varying degrees of tearing of the external oblique aponeurosis and external oblique muscle associated with ilioinguinal nerve entrapment. Repair of the external oblique tear, ablation of the ilioinguinal nerve, followed by a 12-week planned course of physiotherapy allowed all to return to professional ice hockey careers. DISCUSSION: While soft tissue injuries are the most common cause of groin pain in the athlete, tears of the external oblique aponeurosis and superficial inguinal ring have rarely been cited as a consistent cause of lower abdominal pain in athletes. Inguinal nerve entrapment is also rare in patients without a history of previous lower abdominal surgery. RELEVANCE: These 11 cases emphasize the importance of including another diagnostic possibility in the differential diagnosis of chronic overuse injuries of the lower abdomen.

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The finding, in a patient with celiac sprue, of a characteristic change at endoscopy (scalloping of the valvulae conniventes, event on close inspection, but forming only a mosaic pattern from a distance) led to an endoscopic survey designed to define its incidence. In a series of 28 sequential patients found to have microscopic changes characteristic of sprue on biopsy, distinctive endoscopic changes were found in 22 (in 6 of 9 with sprue in relapse, and 16 of 19 presenting with initial symptoms). The finding of the distinctive appearance provides an endoscopically recognizable pattern that can be associated with sprue. It also provides the potential for early recognition of the process in patients in whom the diagnosis might otherwise have been delayed due to a lack of substantial evolution of the usually associated symptom complex.

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We report 3 patients with severe and persistent iron deficiency anemia who were found to have gastric antral vascular ectasia. Endoscopically, the patients presented with a characteristic antral appearance so distinctive as to be diagnostic: longitudinal rugal folds traversing the antrum and converging on the pylorus, each containing a visible convoluted column of vessels, the aggregate resembling the stripes on a watermelon; and, less prominently, evidence of mucosal prolapse. In 2 of these patients, with uncontrollable anemia, antrectomy and Billroth I anastomosis were performed; their hemoglobin levels have subsequently remained normal over the following 2 yr. In the third patient, who was achlorhydric, prednisone therapy substantially reduced the rate of bleeding. In all patients, endoscopic biopsy specimens showed dilatation of mucosal capillaries, with focal thrombosis and fibromuscular hyperplasia of the lamina propria; the resected specimens, additionally, show thickened mucosa with tortuous submucosal venous channels. The importance of the condition lies in its recognition.

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The results of treatment of 13 consecutive cases of antibiotic-associated pseudomembranous colitis with oral metronidazole are described. The diagnosis was made by typical sigmoidoscopic appearance with a confirming characteristic colonic biopsy specimen and/or stools positive for Clostridium difficile cytotoxin. All patients responded with the disappearance of diarrhea between 1 and 5 days. Two patients experienced relapse when the therapy was discontinued. Our experience with metronidazole shows that it is an effective treatment for antibiotic-associated pseudomembranous colitis. The response to metronidazole treatment compares favorably with that usually obtained with vancomycin.

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The submucosal venous network of the esophagus is part of the collateral system that develops following superior vena caval obstruction from any cause. The direction of flow in these thin-walled, valveless veins is "downhill," towards the azygous vein or to the inferior vena cava. Bleeding from upper esophageal varices is extremely rare. This case report describes a patient with massive bleeding from upper esophageal varices secondary to superior vena caval obstruction by a malignant thyroid tumor. Total thyroidectomy relieved the obstruction, with cessation of hemorrhage and subsequent disappearance of the varices.

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At least 150 cases of mushroom poisoning occur in Canada each year, 75% in the Province of Ontario. Eighty per cent of the total are in children under the age of 9, and most do not require hospitalization. Amanita virosa poisoning is a potentially fatal medical emergency which presents as an acute gastroenteritis, progressing to hepatorenal failure. Treatment consists of elimination of undigested mushrooms, rapid rehydration, management of acute liver and renal failure, and prevention of infection during the recovery phase.

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