A Case Report of Surgical Removal of Gastric Bezoar Formed by Ingestion of Bond in AIDS Patient

ABSTRACT

Despite the increasing number of patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, surgical experience with these patients remains limited in Korea. Patient with HIV infection may require surgery for the reasons similar to those anyone else might need an operation for or because of problems related to their viral illness. Surgeons feel threatened by the risk of contamination when operating on HIV-seropositive or AIDS patients. However, the exclusion of patients from treatment is unethical on ground of contamination risk. Therefore the surgeons have to reconsider their surgical strategy and technique in order to keep chances of contamination as low as possible. We report a case in which the AIDS patient has undergone an operation for gastric bezoar. To our Knowledge, this is the first report of laparotomy in Korea in patient with AIDS.