A Rare Case of Tubular Stomach in an 80-Year-Old Female Cadaver

Abstract

The stomach is a muscular bag that forms the most dilated part of the gastrointestinal tract. It serves as a reservoir for food and aids in the conversion of food into chyme under the influence of hydrochloric acid. The stomach is prone to conditions such as peptic ulcers, Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD), birth defects like Infantile Hypertrophic Pyloric Stenosis (IHPS) and stomach carcinoma. Surgical manipulation of the stomach is performed by bariatric surgeons for treating obesity. A comprehensive understanding of stomach variations helps clinicians identify developmental defects during disease diagnosis and prevents inadvertent damage during surgeries. In a recent case involving a specimen obtained for studying anatomical stomach variations and histological alterations, an unusual tubular stomach was discovered in an 80-year-old female cadaver during routine dissection by medical students in the Department of Anatomy. The stomach was dissected by cutting through the oesophagus superiorly and the pyloric duodenal junction inferiorly, and then removed from the abdominal cavity. An incision was made along the greater curvature of the stomach for internal examination. This tubular-shaped stomach had a smaller number of rugae and measured 28 cm in length. Tissue samples were collected for histopathological examination using Haematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) stain. Different stomach shapes are closely linked to organogenesis. Various acquired stomach variations are clinically significant, such as those occurring in oesophagectomy, which involves the surgical division of the vagal nerve and vagal sparing oesophagectomy, a procedure for weight loss.