Abstract
A case of 7-day-old girl presented with so-called spontaneous pneumoperitoneum. She was referred to Ishikawa Prefectural Central Hospital becasuse of gastroinetestinal bleeding and pneumoperitoneum. On suspicion of peptic ulcer perforation, upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, followed by laparotomy, was performed under general anesthesia. Although endoscopic examination revealed an active duodenal ulcer, no perforation site was found out at laparotomy. Without endoscopic examination, she would have been diagnosed as spontaneous pneumoperitoneum. Her postoperative course was uneventful, managed with anti-biotics and H_2 blocker. The final diagnosis was spontaneous closure of duodenal ulcer perforation. Endoscopic examination is a useful method in order to clear up the cause of pneumoperitoneum in the newborn, when laparotomy has failed to find out the gastrointestinal perforation.
