Korean J Gastroenterol.  2003 Jul;42(1):63-66.

A Case of Gastric Ulcer Induced by Helicobacter heilmannii-like Organism

• Seo WJ
• Park CS
• Cho YJ
• Cha KW
• Lee SW
• Lim ST
• Sung YH
• Baek AR

Abstract

Recently, there was growing interest in a gastric spiral-shaped bacterium morphologically deviating from Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), which was classified as Helicobacter heilmannii (H. heilmannii). It rarely inhabits human species whereas the observation of structurally comparable bacteria in other mammals, including cats and dogs, is a commonplace. Therefore, it is now generally recognized that H. heilmannii is an animal Helicobacter, which is occasionally transmitted to man. H. heilmannii is usually associated with chronic gastritis. Here, we described a case of gastric ulcer caused by spiral bacteria morphologically identical to H. heilmannii. The patient complained of epigastric pain over a two day period. He took the gallbldder of a wild raccoon dog 7 days before. Upper gastrointesinal endoscopy revealed multiple geographic gastric ulcers in the distal body and antrum. After eradication of another Helicobacter spp, H. heilmannii, the symptom resolved completely in 4 days. Eight weeks later, a follow-up endoscopy showed complete healing of the ulcer.

Keyword

Helicobacter heilmannii; Stomach ulcer

MeSH Terms

Animals
Helicobacter Infections/*diagnosis/transmission
*Helicobacter heilmannii
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Raccoons/microbiology
Stomach Ulcer/*microbiology