Abdominal pain crisis in a young patient with B12 deficiency: a case report

ABSTRACT

Vitamin B12 deficiency is an unusual disease in younger individuals. This case report has demonstrated how a patient with vitamin B12 deficiency can present with unusual symptoms. Two episodes of severe abdominal pain were identified in a 35-year-old man in the emergency ward. During both episodes surgical consultations were requested. A gastroduodenoscopy revealed macroscopic atrophic gastritis and pathology reports showed mucosal atrophy in the gastric corpus with evidence of intestinal metaplasia. Laboratory data showed a low level of vitamin B12 in the patient's serum. In rare cases? vitamin B12 deficiency can present with severe abdominal pain associated with abdominal rigidity