In the majority of tertiary centres the Emergency Room or Assessment Unit is the gateway to the rest of the hospital. It is the location where critical decisions are formulated depending on whether a patient's condition is serious enough to warrant admission and, at times, emergency surgery. On occasion this decision can be straightforward based solely on the patient's presentation, observation...

A 72-year-old patient presented as a sealed perforated duodenal ulcer. This was later confirmed at operation when in addition a haemoperitoneum due to a lacerated friable spleen was discovered. The patient denied antecedent injury. The peripheral blood film was normal but a subsequent differential slide test for infectious mononucleosis was positive. Histology of the spleen showed hyperplasia o...

We present a case of acute gastric band slippage with gastric necrosis and massive haemoperitoneum necessitating an emergency surgery. The patient presented with an 8h history of dysphagia, vomiting and epigastric pain. Initial examination was unremarkable, but within 6h the patient suddenly deteriorated with a distended peritonitic abdomen. At laparotomy the patient was found to have gastric b...

Rudimentary horn is one of the rarest congenital uterine anomalies and consists of a relatively normal appearing uterus on one side with a rudimentary horn on the other side. Pregnancy in the rudimentary horn of the uterus is a rare form of ectopic pregnancy of which most of the patients present in second trimester in haemorrhagic shock and severe anaemia due to rupture. We report a case of rup...

Although Cullen' s sign is usually associated with haemorrhagic pancreatitis, this report describes a case in which it occurred in a patient with infectious mononucleosis and non-traumatic rupture of the spleen. Thomas Stephen Cullen (1869-1953) professor of gynaecology at Johns Hopkins University Hospital, Baltimore USA, gave his name to a peri-umbilical ecchymosis resulting from a haemoperito...