Acute endocarditis in a patient with severe anorexia nervosa and autoaggressive behavior

Electrolyte Derangements, Hyperlactatemia, and Cardiac Abnormalities Secondary to Refeeding in Three Dogs: Case Report

Three dogs that presented to the emergency service in severely emaciated body conditions were admitted to the hospital for monitoring and refeeding. During their hospitalization, all three dogs developed electrolyte derangements or required supplementation to prevent hypophosphatemia and hypomagnesemia. Additionally, all dogs developed hyperlactatemia, which was suspected to be secondary to thiamine deficiency. Two dogs were reported to have cardiac abnormalities, including cardiac arrhythmias, systolic dysfunction, and spontaneous echogenic contrast. These cases highlight the complexity of refeeding syndrome and its associated complications that extend beyond electrolyte deficiencies.

Perioperative management of severe anorexia nervosa

As the prevalence of anorexia nervosa (AN) increased, surgery in severe AN patients also increased in the 2000s. We experienced a surgical case of a patient with severe AN, showing an extremely low BMI of 8.6 kg m(-2). We investigated the problems associated with this case and propose criteria to manage severe AN. We endeavour to report on the perioperative management of rare and severe symptoms and surgical indications of severely malnourished patients. All published reports were identified through comprehensive searches using PubMed, BioMedLib, and the Japan Medical Abstracts Society with the following terms and keywords: 'anorexia nervosa', 'eating disorder', 'hypoglycaemia', 'leucocytopaenia', 'gelatinous bone marrow', 'surgery', and 'operation'. In cases of AN with a BMI under 13 kg m(-2), marked hypoglycaemia, leucocytopaenia <3.0×10(9) litre(-1), or both, potentially fatal complications frequently occur. Accordingly, patients need strict nutritional support to avoid re-feeding syndrome until surgery. During the course of anaesthesia, careless loading of glucose or catecholamine may lead to disturbance of electrolytes or fatal arrhythmia. Intensive care and early feeding as soon as possible after surgery are important to prevent surgical site infection. Although not many perioperative cases of AN have been reported, clinicians must be aware of the danger and the causes of mortality in critical cases. Thus, the decision to undertake surgery must be taken carefully and close perioperative coordination among physicians, surgeons, psychiatrists, anaesthesiologists, and intensivists is essential.

Somatic comorbidity in anorexia nervosa: First results of a 21-year follow-up study on female inpatients

Background

Anorexia nervosa is a severe psychosomatic disease with somatic complications in the long-term course and a high mortality rate. Somatic comorbidities independent of anorexia nervosa have rarely been studied, but pose a challenge to clinical practitioners. We investigated somatic comorbidities in an inpatient cohort and compared somatically ill anorexic patients and patients without a somatic comorbidity. In order to evaluate the impact of somatic comorbidity for the long-term course of anorexia nervosa, we monitored survival in a long-term follow-up.

Method

One hundred and sixty-nine female inpatients with anorexia nervosa were treated at the Charité University Medical Centre, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Berlin, between 1979 and 2011. We conducted retrospective analyses using patient's medical and psychological records. Information on survival and mortality were required through the local registration office and was available for one hundred patients. The mean follow-up interval for this subgroup was m = 20.9 years (sd = 4.7, min = 13.3, max = 31.6, range = 18.3). We conducted survival analysis using cox regression and included somatic comorbidity in a multivariate model.

Results

N = 41 patients (24.3%) showed a somatic comorbidity, n = 13 patients (7.7%) showed somatic comorbidities related to anorexia nervosa and n = 26 patients (15.4%) showed somatic comorbidities independent of anorexia nervosa, n = 2 patients showed somatic complications related to other psychiatric disorders. Patients with a somatic comorbidity were significantly older (m = 29.5, sd = 10.3 vs m = 25.0, sd = 8.7; p = .006), showed a later anorexia nervosa onset (m = 24.8, sd = 9.9 vs. m = 18.6, sd = 5.1; p < .000) and a longer duration of treatment in our clinic (m = 66.6, sd = 50.3 vs. m = 50.0, sd = 47; p = .05) than inpatients without somatic comorbidity. Out of 100 patients, 9 patients (9%) had died, on average at age of m = 37 years (sd = 9.5). Mortality was more common among inpatients with somatic comorbidity (n = 6, 66.7%) than among inpatients without a somatic disease (n = 3, 33.3%; p = .03). Somatic comorbidity was a significant coefficient in a multivariate survival model (B = 2.32, p = .04).

Conclusion

Somatic comorbidity seems to be an important factor for anorexia nervosa outcome and should be included in multivariate analyses on the long-term course of anorexia nervosa as an independent variable. Further investigations are needed in order to understand in which way anorexia nervosa and a somatic disease can interact.