Phytobezoar Formation: A New Complication of Cimetidine Therapy

  1. TRENT W. NICHOLS, Jr., M.D.
  1. Hanover General Hospital;
    Hanover, Pennsylvania

    Excerpt

    Cimetidine, a histamine 2 (H-2) receptor antagonist of acid secretion, is a popular and well-accepted treatment. Its therapeutic efficacy in gastric ulceration (1), reflux esophagitis (2), and anastomotic ulceration after gastric surgery (3) has been documented. Gastric phytobezoar formation during cimetidine therapy was previously reported in a patient with peptic esophageal ulceration (4). Since then three additional patients have been seen in whom phytobezoars developed during cimetidine therapy; they are the subjects of this report.

    Patient 1: A previously described (4) 55-year-old edentulous white woman with an endoscopically proven esophageal ulceration developed a gastric phytobezoar 14 days after treatment with

    Acknowledgments

    The author thanks Dr. Robert Craig, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, for his help in revising this paper.

    Article and Author Information

    • ▸Requests for reprints should be addressed to Trent W. Nichols, Jr., M.D.; 261 Frederick Street; Hanover, PA 17331.

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    1. Ann Intern Med July 1, 1981 vol. 95 no. 1 70
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