Dieulafoy’s Lesion

Synonyms

Caliber-persistent artery; Exulceratio simplex; Gastric atherosclerotic aneurysm

Definition

Named after Paul Georges Dieulafoy (1839–1911), a French surgeon and professor of pathology, Dieulafoy’s lesion is a cause of acute GI bleeding. This is a potentially life-threatening lesion due to the presence of an enlarged artery in the submucosa that protrudes through small (2–5 mm) mucosal defects with exposure of the vessel wall in the lumen causing intraluminal hemorrhage. Dieulafoy’s lesion is often recurrent and causes obscure massive GI hemorrhage, manifested by hematemesis and/or melena (Ding et al. 2010). Patients usually have no prior history of GI pathology or symptoms and typically have no significant NSAIDs or alcohol use. Although this lesion presents more commonly in a population with comorbidities, such as cardiopulmonary dysfunction or renal failure, which has led some researchers to propose causal links with these diseases, etiology for Dieulafoy’s lesion remains...